IDC projects that the worldwide big data technology and services market will grow 40% annually from 2010 to 2015 to reach $16.9 billion in 2015. The growth in big data is expected to be about seven times the growth of the overall information and communications technology market. Within the market, the server segment is expected to see annualized growth of 27%. Further, the software market for big data is projected to grow 34% annually, while the most growth will be seen in the storage market at 61% annual growth. Flash memory maker Fusion-io (NYSE:FIO) is among the leading storage solutions provider for big data companies. To cater to the growing demand for storage products, Fusion is expanding their product offerings and seeing strong results.
Recently MarketsandMarkets released a report, Enterprise Social Software Market – Global Advancements, Demand Analysis and Worldwide Market Forecasts (2013-2018), to track the growth of the enterprise social software market. The report estimates that the global enterprise social software market will grow from $721.3 million last year to $6.18 billion by 2018, recording growth of 45% annually. Growth will be driven by increased adoption of the tools by the high tech and telecommunications vertical. North America will hold the maximum revenue share in the market, and Asia Pacific will drive high growth in the market by region.
Gartner’s Q4 worldwide PC shipments report may have painted a picture of dismal performance for PC shipments, which fell 4.9% over the year to 90.3 million units, but for HP, it was still a better quarter than previous ones. After having slipped from the leading vendor position in the third quarter last year, HP regained their lead in the final quarter. During the quarter, HP commanded 16.2% of the global market share, compared with 15.5% both a year and a quarter ago. Lenovo, which had managed to gain a marginal lead in the previous quarter with 15.7% share, slipped to the second largest vendor with 15.5% of the market share. But HP should not be complacent because over the year, their shipment volume dropped 0.5% to 14.6 million, while Lenovo registered a strong 8.2% increase to 13.98 million units.
Market reports confirm that the housing market in the U.S. is beginning to show signs of improvement. According to the National Association of Realtors, in January sales of existing homes grew 0.4% over December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million. The housing inventory also shrunk to its lowest since December 1999, with inventory falling 4.9% over December and 25.3% over the previous year to 1.74 million homes. At the current selling pace, the inventory is expected to be exhausted within four months. Low inventory levels and 40% growth in buyer interest is also helping drive prices upward. The median national price grew 12% over the year to $173,600 in January. The median listing time for sales also fell 28% to 71 days in January. Improving housing market conditions are helping the performance of the online real estate sector.
Gartner’s worldwide PC shipment report for the final quarter of last year showed that PC shipments fell 4.9% over the year to 90.3 million units; the decrease was driven by increasing adoption of tablets. PC shipments in the U.S. fell 2.1% over the year to 17.5 million units in the quarter. The EMEA region did not fare any better, as PC shipments fell 10% to 28.1 million units, and shipments in Asia Pacific fell 1.8% to 29.9 million units. Gartner believes that the decline in computer sales was accelerated by the availability of low-cost tablets during the previous year. PC sales refused to pick up during the holiday season as consumers preferred to give tablets instead of PCs as gifts. Earlier, analysts were hopeful that the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 would help drive growth in PC shipments. However, the muted reaction received to the new OS did not do much good for the industry.
According to a report by the Digital Entertainment Group, the U.S. home entertainment market grew 2.5% a year ago to $4.5 billion during the first quarter last year. The home entertainment market includes purchases, subscriptions, and rentals of DVDs, Blu-ray discs and online content. For the 12-month period, sales for the market were down 2.1% to $18 billion. But the quarter was the second consecutive quarter of growth, suggesting a recovery on the way. Twenty-three percent growth in sales of Blu-ray discs was offset by the continued decline in DVD sales. Overall, sales of both Blu-ray and DVD packages fell 0.6% over the year to $2.1 billion. The biggest growth was seen in revenues from online subscriptions for services such as Netflix and Hulu, which reported a fivefold increase to $548.6 million. Entertainment giant The Walt Disney Company is also rapidly adapting to digital trends.
Research firm Informa Telecoms and Media estimates that the worldwide mobile advertising market was worth $8 billion last year, and it is projected to grow to $12.8 billion during the current year. This rapid growth represents a major opportunity for platform providers as well. Here is a quick glance into the performance of one such company, OpenX.
According to an eMarketer report published earlier last year, the number of social network users globally was projected to grow 19.2% over the year to 1.43 billion in 2012. Growth in social network use is estimated to be driven by the increasing adoption of Facebook worldwide. But besides personal use, social media is also gaining popularity in professional networks. LinkedIn remains synonymous with professional social networks. Another lesser known professional network, Viadeo, has also built a strong base.
According to a TechNavio report, the worldwide marketing automation market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 8.2% from 2011 through 2015. Growth is driven by the increasing availability and adoption of SaaS-based marketing tools that help companies, both big and small, to automate their marketing solutions. While the market is dominated by offerings from giants such as Salesforce.com, there are also plenty of smaller vendors that are focusing on providing access to the SMB segment and seeing rapid expansion themselves.
A research conducted by MarketsandMarkets estimates the global mobile applications market to be worth $25 billion by 2015, compared with $6.8 billion in 2010. The app market is dominated by North America, which contributes 42% of the market share. But European markets are projected to grow more rapidly than North America to $8.4 billion, making Europe the biggest market by 2015.