Worldwide application development software revenue down 2% in 2009: Gartner

IBM gains top spot with 27.7% market share

Worldwide project application development (AD) software revenue was down 2% to $7.25bn in 2009, compared to $7.39bn in 2008, according to information technology research and advisory company Gartner.

Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner, said: One of the main reasons for the decline in revenue in the AD market in 2009 was the de facto spending freeze on new projects in the early part of the year, which caused organizations to cut spending on new tools to support any new projects.

AD tool spending tends to be cyclical in nature with strong years of spending, as we saw in 2007, followed by a year or two of low or reduced investment.

Ms Wurster said that despite the restrictions imposed on AD spending due to the recession, the ongoing need to invest in security testing was one of the key drivers for the market.

IBM continued to gain the top spot with market share increasing to 27.7% in 2009 from 26.9% in 2008, was helped in part by strategic acquisitions such as Watchfire 2007 and Ounce Labs 2009, Gartner said.

Gartner analysts said Microsoft's share of the market remained almost flat given the company's preannouncement of Visual Studio 2010. CA's revenue declined marginally by 1%, while HP and Compuware experienced considerable declines of 7.3% and 12.3%, respectively.

Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner, said: We expect AD software spending to increase 2 to 3% in 2010. Java platform and Dynamic Web application tools will continue to see the biggest impact from open-source alternatives. We expect consolidation of this market to continue with larger vendors acquiring pure-play and point products to round out their suits and portfolio offerings.

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