According to Paul A. Strassmann, Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences at George Mason University's School of Information Technology and Engineering, HP has finally overtaken IBM as the top I.T. vendor. Strassman, a columnist for Baseline and president of The Information Economics Press, as well as a senior advisor to Science Applications International, says that the number 1 IT vendor is now extending its reach by promising to meet the demands for Web-based architectures and data warehouses. HP's ascension was not a dramatic, publicity-fueled moon shot. Its gains in market share, particularly against firms like IBM and Dell, were achieved in small, steady increments. The way HP has risen, and the economic models that it has adopted, offer a useful lesson for CIOs. 

For more of Strassman's thoughts on HP:
- read the analysis in this Baseline Article