Security software revenue grew 4.9% during 2013, rising from $19bn in 2012 to $19.9bn, according to a report from Gartner.

The growth was lower than expected due to drop in revenue growth from two of the top five vendors as well as due to commoditisation of key subsegments.

Garner research director Ruggero Contu said the market experienced slower, but still healthy, growth in 2013.

"This slightly tempered growth was partly due to the increased commoditization of the endpoint security (particularly consumer endpoint software) and secure email gateway (SEG) subsegments (particularly consumer endpoint software) that in 2013 accounted for around 25 percent of the total security software market," Contu added.

Symantec continue to occupy first place followed by McAfee while IBM displaced Trend Micro from the third place to fourth place.

According to the analyst it is the first time a non-pure play vendor like IBM has found a place among top three vendors.

IBM’s revenue grew 19.1% during the year to $1.13bn, slightly edging past Japanese company Trend Micro’s revenue of $1.11bn.

"Overall, the larger trend that emerged in 2013 was that of the democratization of security threats, driven by the easy availability of malicious software and infrastructure (via the underground economy) that can be used to launch advanced targeted attacks."

"This ubiquity of security threats has led organizations to realize that traditional security approaches have gaps, thereby leading them to rethink and invest more in security technology," said Mr. Contu.

"With every company becoming a technology company, more organizations are now looking to leverage a multitude of data points to become more competitive. This desire to become more digital brings with it its own challenges in terms of securing this data to prevent data breaches and to protect against advanced targeted attacks."

North America, Western Europe and mature Asia/Pacific region contributed 83% of the total security software market revenue in 2013, but these regions recorded a cumulative growth of 4.1%, compared to the average growth of 4.9%.

In terms of regional growth, Asia/Pacific region recorded a highest growth of 12.8% followed by China 11% and Eurasia with 9.3%.