Sun Number One in UNIX® With Over Twice the Reveus of Nearest Competitor

Sun’s Leading Marketshare Results for 1Q02 Demonstrate Rapid Customer Adoption of UNIX based Sun Fire[tm] Server Line

Santa Clara, Calif.
May 14, 2002

According to the 1Q02 Servers Quarterly statistics US database by Gartner Dataquest, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) shipped more UNIX® systems than all of its competitors combined, with growth rates of almost 17% year-on-year and 5% sequentially. Furthermore according to the report, with $925M in revenue, Sun outpaced its two nearest competitors by more than a factor of two.

Overall, Gartner Dataquest reports that Sun’s Solaris[tm] Operating Environment and UltraSPARC® based systems experienced the highest level of revenue growth year-on-year of the top five IT vendors while most competing systems saw a decline. In the UNIX market, with 64% marketshare in shipments and 54% revenue share, Sun is clearly number one. Compared to the same quarter last year, Sun grew its marketshare in UNIX shipments by 6.8% while its two closest competitors lost share. Sun also led the pack in year-over-year UNIX revenue marketshare, where it grew by 3.3%.

These Gartner Dataquest results mark the rapid adoption of the Sun Fire product line. “The UltraSPARC III shipment volumes speak for themselves,” said Shahin Khan, Chief Competitive Officer, Sun Microsystems. “Our industry leading intellectual property portfolio and integrated supply chain enable us to quickly respond to the upturn in the market and translate that into increased business efficiency. Sun believes it is leading the charge in the commoditization of 64-bit computing.”

In the entry server space, Sun challenged the Wintel market as the Sun Fire V880 systems showed sequential increases of nearly 200% in both shipments and revenue, according to Gartner Dataquest’s report. Likewise, Sun is clearly on target with the Sun Fire 280R with 58% and 36% sequential increases in shipments and revenue, respectively. In the high-end, Sun feels the impressive sequential revenue (62%) and shipment (100%) growth for the Sun Fire 15K is evidence of customer enthusiasm.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer[tm]” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) 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 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Sun Blade, Solaris, and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SPARC(R) and UltraSPARC(R) are registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. UltraSPARC(R) is licensed exclusively to Sun Microsystems, Inc. Products bearing the SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd.