The Best-Selling Products Of 2010

The Heavy Hitters Of 2010

Apple, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and IBM are among the vendors that had best-selling IT products in 2010 through distributors, according to NPD Group. (The NPD Group's Distributor Track sales database is comprised primarily of U.S. Global Technology Distribution Council members.)

The following slides illustrate the best-selling SKUs in 21 different categories. Keep in mind that some vendors may have more overall marketshare, but too many SKUs may dilute their performance with one specific product.

Mono Laser Printers

Hewlett-Packard LaserJet P4015N

Hewlett-Packard had the top 10-best selling SKUs in 2010, according to NPD, led by the P4015N. Two other versions of the P4015, the TN and DN, also cracked the top 10.

Color Laser Printers

Hewlett-Packard LaserJet CP4525DN

Hewlett-Packard didn't have near the dominance in color as it did in monochrome laser printers: Only nine of the top 10.

Desktops

iMac Core 2 Duo with 21.5-inch screen

Apple doesn't have the market share in this category that HP or Lenovo have, but with fewer SKUs to choose from, it had six of the top 10 best-selling desktop models in 2010, led by this one, an iMac Core 2 Duo with a 3.06 GHz Intel X9100 processor, 4-GB RAM and a 500-GB hard drive.

Notebooks

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo with 13.3-inch Screen

As with desktops, Apple finished behind several competitors for overall marketshare, but had the top six best-selling SKUs. The No. 1 model was a MacBook Pro with a 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4-GB RAM and a 250-GB hard drive.

Network Security Hardware

Cisco Systems ASA 5520 VPN Appliance Bundle

Cisco accounted for seven of the top eight best-selling SKUs in this category, led by the ASA 5520, which edged out its ASA 5510 sibling.

Firewall

Cisco Secure Access Control Server 4.2

Cisco Secure Access Control Server (ACS) is a scalable access policy platform that supports comprehensive, identity-based network access control and provides central management of access policies for both network access and device administration. Version 4.0 of this product also broke the top 10 best-sellers for 2010.

Security Suite

Norton 360 4.0 3User

Norton holds 40-plus percent market share in this category, so it's no surprise that Norton 360 4.0 was the best-selling Security Suite in 2010.

Relational Database

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition

Microsoft holds more market share than Oracle, but Larry Ellison and friends had the best-selling database SKU last year, beating out two Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SKUs.

Data Protection Software

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition

IBM counted four SKUs among the best-selling data protection software products for 2010, led by IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition and followed by three different IBM TotalStorage products.

Telecom Equipment

Cisco IP Phone 7942G

Telecom equipment is a broad category with lots of different products, but Cisco's IP Phone 7942G was one of six Cisco IP phones among the top 10 best-selling SKUs and was also the top-selling model in 2009.

Wired/Wireless Routers

Cisco 2821 Router

Cisco had the top eight best-selling routers sold through distributors in 2010, led by the 2821 Integrated Services model.

Solid State Drives

Intel 160GB X25-M Mainstream 2.5-Inch SATA

With market share approaching 50 percent in solid state drives sold through distributors, it's easy to see why Intel had the top six best-selling models last year. The 160 GB X25-M Mainstream drive was the best of the bunch.

Hard Drives

HP 300GB Serial Attached SCSI 10K RPM HD

Hewlett-Packard doesn't really brand its own hard drives the way Western Digital and Seagate do, but it's dominance in the PC marketplace helped give it the best-selling SKU in this category too, with a 300 GB serial-attached SCSI drive.

Tape Drives

Sun 1/2TB StorageTek T10000B

Sun Microsystems lost market share in this category, but still managed five of the top 10 top-selling tape drives in 2010, anchored by the half-terabyte StorageTek T10000B for the Sun StorageTek SL8500 modular library system.

SANs

IBM 5735 Fibre Channel PCI-X Adapter

IBM only had 2 of the top 10 best-selling SAN products in 2010, but the company's FC 5735 model was the top overall choice.

Color Monitor 19"-30"

Sony 22-inch KDL-22BX300

A fragmented market describes this category. Sony is fifth in overall market share but a 22-inch HDTV display beat out larger screens by Samsung and Viewsonic for the top prize.

Color LCD 30" or Greater

Sony 60-inch KDL60EX700

Sony accounted for 7 of the top 10 best-selling products in this category but holds just over 35 percent share, indicative that it has fewer SKUs than competitors. Still, seven out of 10 is seven out of 10. A 60-inch model beat out 55-inch and 40-inch versions for the top spot.

Document Scanner

Fujitsu fi-6130

With more than 50 percent share in this category, Fujitsu recorded eight of the top 10 best-selling scanners last year, led by this fi-6130.

UPS

APC Smart-UPS 1500VA

American Power Conversion is still the dominant company in this category, accounting for all 10 of the top best-selling products last year.

External Disk Drives

Western Digital 1TB My Passport Essential SE

Western Digital sold the top eight external disk drive SKUs through distributors last year, with the 1TB My Passport Essential beating a 2TB Elements model for No. 1.

Blade Servers

IBM BladeCenter HS22

IBM pulled comfortably ahead of Hewlett-Packard in blade server revenue through distributors in 2010, recording eight of the top 10 best-selling SKUs. A 2.53-GHz Blade Center HS22 beat out a 2.93-GHz version of the same model for the top spot last year.