IBM System z mainframe revenue tanks

IBM announced its second-quarter financial results yesterday. Mainframe revenue tanked compared to the same quarter last year, dropping 39 percent.

Other platforms did poorly as well. System x decreased 22 percent and the Power-based servers, which IBM calls “converged System p,” decreased 13 percent. System revenues overall decreased 26 percent.

The Mainframe Typepad blog says System z mainframe revenues were expected to be down simply because it’s being compared to the second quarter of last year, which was the first full quarter that the new System z10 mainframe was being sold.

The decrease is also just part of an overall slow economy. HP’s second-quarter results were similarly bad, with its servers and storage division down 28 percent. Dell hasn’t released its second-quarter results, but its first-quarter results saw a 29 percent drop in servers and networking.