Worldwide enterprise software market revenues grew to $245bn, increasing 8.5%, in 2010, compared to a revenue decline of 2.5% to $226bn in 2009, according to Gartner.
Microsoft maintained its top position as it increased its worldwide enterprise software revenue market share to 22.4% in 2010, said the research firm.
Gartner added that the growth results of Microsoft were enhanced in 2010 by the broader adoption of new releases of the Windows 7 OS and Microsoft Office 2010 productivity software.
IBM retained its second position in 2010 as it had in 2009. It would have been the top enterprise software vendor if Gartner did not count consumer sales of Microsoft’s office and OS.
IBM sells only to enterprises and partners. The company’s software revenue grew more than 5.7% in 2010, mainly due to its WebSphere, Tivoli, Information Mgmt., OS and Rational brands.
Gartner said that IBM expanded dramatically in 2010 into the applications with a focus on e-commerce, marketing and sales with more than 20 industry offering frameworks as its ‘smarter planet’ go-to-market strategy evolves.
Oracle registered strongest growth among the top five vendors, as its revenue increased 19.4%.
Oracle registered growth across all software markets, with faster growth emerging from its business intelligence, security, IT operations, and data integration and quality tools offerings, said Gartner.
In addition, Oracle has kept most acquired technologies intact while integrating the infrastructure and middleware into Oracle Fusion Middleware (OFM) 11g with some integration across the application portfolio.
Among the top 25 vendors, VMware led the group with more than 41% growth in 2010, followed by Adobe with more than 29% and salesforce.com with more than 28% growth.
The top 25 vendors, ranked by total 2010 software revenue, grew more than 11.5% overall. These vendors accounted for nearly 68% share, or more than $165bn, of the overall software market.
Gartner managing vice-president Joanne Correia said major software vendors expanded their product portfolios, acquired companies where appropriate to their plans, and reached deeper into emerging markets in 2010.
"The year represented a return to solid footing as the market recovered and expanded in terms of revenue and geographies. However, some regions did not recover as rapidly as others. Japan and Western Europe saw relatively modest dollar-denominated growth, while Latin America and Asia/Pacific saw growth in the mid-to-high teens, nearly double the market average," Correia said.
