Vendor Spotlight:

SUN CONTINUES TO GROW AS TOP TRADITIONAL WORKSTATION VENDOR

Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced that the company grew its share of the worldwide traditional workstation (TWS) market, showing an increase in revenue and unit shipment market share on a quarter-to-quarter basis, comparing the first quarter of 2003 to the second quarter of 2003, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Workstation Tracker. Sun products represented 69% of the units shipped and 49% of the revenue in the traditional(Unix/RISC) workstation space.

Sun has led the TWS market for over eight years, and grew last quarter in both unit and shipment terms while all other system providers lost ground. Noteworthy performers include the Sun Blade 2000, which was the highest revenue generating TWS product worldwide, and the Sun Blade 150, the highest unit seller. Also, despite reports that TWS is shrinking it grew revenue slightly (1.5%) while the personal workstation market (PWS) decreased on a quarter-to-quarter basis by 4% in units and 6% in revenues.

"While our competitors are forcing customers to make difficult, costly transitions, Sun continues delivering real world solutions that satisfy customer requirements while not breaking their application investments," said Neil Knox, executive vice president for Sun's Volume Systems Group. "Last quarter we had significant wins in the automotive, government, defense contractors and telecommunications industries; we also achieved outstanding results with OEM partners like Xerox, Philips and Avaya. Sun continues to put resources towards developing new, innovative products designed to help us build on our gains and continue to grow market share."

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com/.