China’s Linux market revenue reached USD11.8 million in 2005, up 27.1% over 2004. 2005 saw a steady growth in the China Linux market, brought about mainly by the huge volume of government procurements and large-scale SCO Unix replacement by major banks and industrial projects such as Telecommunication and Internet cafes.
Along with the growing acceptance of Linux in the China market, IDC also noted that Linux servers were adopted for high-end, mission critical support applications in some industries and Linux desktops were able to withstand the competition of pirated Windows to hold its market share. However, it will take some time before the Linux market in China can grow dramatically due to various factors that hinder market development, such as the shortage of talents, and users’ comparatively low acceptance towards Linux.
According to IDC’s latest research China Linux 2006-2010 Forecast and Analysis, China’s Linux market will grow at a CAGR of 34.0% from 2006 to 2010, and reach USD51.1 million by 2010
Innovative Offerings Paving the Way for Linux Desktop Market
“In the past, Linux desktops thrived on its low-cost OEM value proposition,” said Nielse Jiang, Software and Services Analyst, IDC China. “In 2005, the strategy shifted as Linux vendors identified more ways of operating Linux desktops to improve demand and profitability.”
For example, China Standard Software offered bundled multimedia, online education and other applications with Linux desktops for OEM sale and Redflag Linux worked with partners to develop e-commerce solutions based on its desktop OS.
“Given the sizeable Linux Desktop government contracts, the market bodes well with the proliferation of new solutions that will pave the way for expansion into online transactions, office automation and home PC environments,” added Mr. Jiang.
Increased Server Market Competition
2005 also saw major international Linux vendors like Novell and RedHat making a foray into the local market by actively conducting market promotions and participating in project tenders, with notable success in the Linux server market. In key industries such as telecom and finance, international vendors were able to demonstrate their competitive advantages. While domestic vendors continued to dominate government procurements and some sectors that are not accessible to international vendors, the impact brought about by foreign competitors does not remain unnoticed.
“The China Linux market featured unprecedented competition in 2005, which will continue well into 2006,” noted Nielse Jiang. “As a direct result of such intense competition, price wars will be inevitable in 2006. Most of the public tenders closed with relatively low prices in 2005. Keen price competition continues to serve as a major barrier to the China Linux market.”
Future Outlook
In the "China Linux Market Analysis and Forecast, 2005-2009" report published in February 2005, IDC noted that the market would not be able to sustain the fierce external competition in the long term. To increase competitiveness, IDC had predicted that partnerships, alliances and even mergers and acquisitions were highly probable in 2005. This prediction has proven accurate with the strategic partnership between China Standard Software and Novell, and the alliance established between Turbolinux and Co-Create in 2005.
For 2006, IDC foresees even deeper levels of alliances and partnerships between Linux vendors. Given the limited government procurements this year, local Linux vendors’ revenue-generating capability will be put to the test.
http://www.idc.com.cn/
The Web Doubles In the Past Three Years
There are now more than 80 million web sites on the Internet, as the April 2006 Netcraft survey received responses from 80,655,992 sites, an increase of 3.1 million hostnames from March 2006. The web has doubled in size in the past three years, as the survey hit the 40 million mark in April 2003.
This month's Netcraft survey brings one of the largest one-month swings in the history of the web server market, as Microsoft gains 4.7 percent share while Apache loses 5.9 percent. The shift is driven by changes at domain registrar Go Daddy, which has just migrated more than 3.5 million hostnames from Linux to Windows. Go Daddy, which had been the world's largest Linux host, is now the world's largest Windows Server 2003 host, as measured by hostnames. The company said it will shift a total of 4.4 million hostnames to Windows Server 2003.
Technology trends among registrars have a large impact on web server market share, as each registrar hosts large numbers of parked domains. Microsoft's last major upward surge in market share in 2001-02 was boosted by migrations at Register.com and VeriSign. Go Daddy is the second huge registrar to shift its sites to Windows Server 2003, following the lead of enom. Among other major registrars, 1&1 Internet, Dotster and Register.com host on Linux, while Network Solutions uses Solaris.
"It was clear from all of the testing we’ve conducted that Microsoft provides an efficient and scalable operating platform, while also providing the performance needed to handle our extraordinary growth," said Warren Adelman, president and COO of Go Daddy.
Michael van Dijken, Microsoft's Marketing Manager for Hosted Solutions, noted that Go Daddy's migration to Windows Server 2003 follows announcements of expanded relationships between Microsoft and several other major hosters, including Web.com (Interland), Verio and Rackforce. "We've seen a significant amount of traction in the past two months," said van Dijken.
Maxcom Unveils Secure Managed Services with Juniper
Maxcom, a Mexican service provider, is providing Managed Security Services (MSS) based on Juniper Networks firewall/VPN and Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) solutions to its small and medium business (SMB) customers. Maxcom deployed a solution consisting of Juniper Networks NetScreen-25, NetScreen-5GT, IDP 1100 and ISG 2000 security appliances to provide cost-effective and scalable managed security services to its SMB customers.
According to sources, Maxcom recognized the need to offer affordable managed security services to SMB customers looking for ways to protect their network infrastructure against rising levels of security threats. "Maxcom is the first service provider to offer managed security services that meet the diverse requirements of the SMB customers in Mexico," said Roberto del Real, marketing director of Maxcom.
Bluetooth Wireless Awareness Soars Among Consumers
For the third year, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) commissioned research firm Millward Brown to conduct an independent study on consumer awareness, attitude and usage of Bluetooth wireless technology. The study polled 2100 consumers between the ages of 18 and 70 in the United States, United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Japan and Taiwan. Of the countries polled, the average awareness level was 73 percent, up from 60 percent in 2004.
Awareness rose most significantly in the US, where for the first time over 50 percent of the respondents recognized the Bluetooth brand: over the course of the study, awareness rose from just 22 percent in 2003 to 41 percent in 2004 and then to 58 percent in 2005. The largest bastion of Bluetooth educated consumers currently resides in the UK and Germany where average awareness was 88 percent. And in Taiwan and Japan, 67 percent of respondents know which wireless technology brand to look for when connecting devices in the personal area network. Overall, Bluetooth technology is the best recognized wireless technology in all of the countries polled except the US where it is a close second in awareness (58 percent to 62 percent) to Wi-Fi.
"In a world driven by supply and demand, product availability typically mirrors consumer awareness and Bluetooth wireless technology is no exception. Rising consumer demand demonstrated in the Millward Brown study is met with heightened product shipment figures recently reaching 10 million Bluetooth units per week," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. "It is encouraging to see that consumers not only have heard of Bluetooth technology, but they are also using it for more advanced applications. Our goal in 2006 is to increase the understanding that Bluetooth technology enables far more than wireless headsets and mobile phones, though those will remain favorites."
Coupled with increased awareness of the technology as a whole, consumers are starting to understand that there are a variety of uses for Bluetooth technology beyond the headset to mobile phone connection. Awareness of new use cases, including gaming, networking and music streaming, is on the rise in all countries. In line with this increase in awareness is an increase in products qualified through the Bluetooth SIG qualification program in 2005 - 358 different companies qualified 852 products in 2005, up approximately 44 percent from 2004.
Other Interesting Points from the Study
Over two-thirds of those polled in Taiwan own at least one Bluetooth enabled device.
Japanese consumers are the most willing to pay extra for Bluetooth functionality, despite the relative lack of Bluetooth products available in the Japanese market.
Like the US and UK, identification of Bluetooth technology in headsets and cars rose significantly in Japan.
Purchase of mobile phones with Bluetooth technology grew significantly with Taiwan leading the way with 58 percent, followed by Germany at 40 percent.
Bluetooth logo recognition is highest in Germany with 69 percent of respondents noting they had seen the logo before participating in the study.
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