Microsoft Sees Revenue Declines But Gears Up for Windows 8

According to research by IHS, PC sales will fall 1.2% to 348.7 million units this year. This is first time since 2001 that PC sales are projected to decline over the year. This decline attributed to poor economic conditions and the increased adoption of mobile devices like the iPad.

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RIM Looks Grim

According to market research, in August of this year BlackBerry manufacturer RIM’s market share of the U.S. smartphone market fell from 11.4% a year ago to 8.3%. RIM may have managed to retain the third position in the market and is far ahead of Microsoft’s 3.6% market share. But it still has a big gap to overcome if it plans to contend with the second largest player in the market. Google’s Android phones commanded 52.6% of the U.S. smartphone market, and Apple saw its share grow from 31.9% to 34.3% in August. RIM may be counting on the BlackBerry 10 to pull it out of the rut. However, given the current gap in market share, that would be quite a challenge.

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The Market Likes Workday

Last week, SaaS-based enterprise services provider Workday (NYSE:WDAY) finally went public. According to Fortune/CNN Money, its IPO was among “the largest venture-backed IPO since Facebook.” It sold 22.8 million shares at $28 each, raising $637 million through the IPO.

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A Peek Into Newly Public Qualys

A Gartner report, Market Trends: Cloud-Based Security Services Market, Worldwide, 2012, estimates that the cloud-based security market will be worth $4.2 billion by 2016. Researcher IDC is more optimistic: One of its reports on cloud security–based solutions estimates a compounded growth rate of 16% over the period 2011 to 2015, projecting that the market will grow from $5.1 billion in 2011 to $9.3 billion in 2015.

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Jumptap on Amazon’s Radar

Research firm eMarketer estimates that $2.6 billion, or just 2% of all U.S. marketing budgets this year, will be spent on mobile advertising. But it’s clear that importance of mobile advertising is growing. StatCounter estimates that smartphone and tablet users now account for more than 10% of Internet traffic in the country. Recently the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence released mobile advertising report for the past year. According to their research, global mobile advertising was worth $5.3 billion last year, with 26% of the market belonging to Europe and 31% to North America. Asia Pacific markets contributed the largest share – 36% of the market. The emerging markets of Latin America and Middle East & Africa together accounted for nearly 7% of the global market.

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E2open Will Find the Public Market Tough

According to Forrester’s research, the cloud computing market will be worth $241 billion by the year 2020. Forrester projects the market to be worth $55 billion by 2014. Driven by such growth potential, E2open, one of the leading providers of cloud-based, on-demand software solutions for supply chain management, went public.

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Shutterstock Ready For IPO

Market researcher BCC Research estimates that the market for pre-shot commercial digital imagery will grow to $5 billion by 2013. The expansion will be driven by growing demand from organizations such as businesses, marketing agencies, and media organizations. In 2008, the market was worth $2.7 billion. Within the pre-shot market, the microstock market is an emerging market where digital images are collected from semi-professional photographers and designers to be sold at comparatively lower prices to organizations and individuals for commercial use. The market is dominated by three players: Getty Images’ iStockPhoto, Shutterstock, and Fotolia. Recently, Shutterstock announced plans to become a listed company.

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Oracle’s Cloud Strategy

Gartner estimates that the worldwide cloud computing market will be worth $58 billion this year, compared with $50 billion last year. Big players are focusing on growth within this market. Earlier this week, at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference, Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison announced the company’s plans to grow in cloud computing in his keynote address.

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Zuora Builds on SaaS Billing Infrastructure Service

Gartner’s recent report on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) estimates that global spending on SaaS will grow 18% this year to $14.5 billion. By 2015, the SaaS market is projected to be worth $22.1 billion. North America remains the largest, most mature market in the industry. SaaS revenues from the continent are projected to grow from $7.8 billion last year to $9.1 billion. SaaS spending in Europe will also grow from $2.7 billion to $3.2 billion this year. While growth in the industry will be dominated by leaders like Salesforce.com, which is estimated to report revenues of $3 billion by next year, other players are also reaping in big.

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No IPO for Twitter Anytime Soon

Not all social media players are looking to go public. Recently, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo reaffirmed his intentions to keep Twitter private. Costolo claims that “five years from now Twitter will remain an independent company.”  Twitter’s belief is that remaining private and independent is the best course of action.

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