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INTERNET
SOFTWARE ENJOYS EXPLOSIVE GROWTH
The hottest high tech market today is the Internet. A
recent survey International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass. conducted
revealed 30% of U.S. business users intend to use the Internet and 40%
of them will do so in 1996. The study showed 36% of existing sites see
internal servers as alternatives to groupware products, such as Lotus
Notes, whereas 37% do not. Respondents unsure (27%) will be the deciding
factor.
Mimicking the PC market of the 1970s, the largest market potential currently
is in products to create the larger Internet communications infrastructure.
However, electronic commerce over the network is beginning to show signs
it may become the hit product that moves the market into its second
growth phase. Stories in this issue examine both these opportunities.
Forrester Research Inc. recently estimated the market potential for
Internet software (see table). The largest segment is server software
which will reach $4.4 billion by 1999. This segment will enjoy the greatest
growth rate, jumping 289% in 1997, 310% in 1998, and another 85% in
1999.
Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester says this extraordinary growth is being
fueled by large companies creating a variety of different servers on
their sites. “The average large company will deploy at least 25 various
types of servers,” the firm claims. These servers will not provide just
content. They will offer a variety of other functions, such as navigation,
collaboration, transactions, and security, according to Forrester.
Integrated software packages will provide this functionality. The packages
will ease implementation woes and encourage small- and medium-sized
businesse participation on the Net. Software tools, another high growth
segment of the Internet sofware market, will develop these software
packages.
Development and assembly tools raise the effectiveness of corporate
developers. More importantly, basic and power authoring tools make Internet
content creation available to ten times more contributors.
Forrester predicts this segment will reach $1.2 billion by 1999. “By
1999 over 10 million users will be authoring for the Web, many of them
spending $1,000 to stay on top of the tools game,” says Eric Brown,
senior analyst with Forrester.
| Worldwide Internet
Software Revenue ($Millions) |
| |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
| Browsers |
$125 |
$312 |
$378 |
$449 |
| Server |
$150 |
$583 |
$2,391 |
$4,426 |
| Tools |
$90 |
$330 |
$769 |
$1,236 |
| Applets |
$3 |
$41 |
$192 |
$629 |
| Suites |
$14 |
$107 |
$581 |
$1,760 |
| Source: Forrester Research Inc. |
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