The global software market forecast is set to continue on a modest growth trajectory through to 2017, according to the\u00a0International Data Corporation (IDC).<\/p>\n
For 2012, the worldwide software market grew 3.6% year over year, less than half the growth rate experienced in 2010 and 2011.<\/p>\n
IDC believes these results mark the beginning of a more conservative period of growth. The forecast growth rate for 2013 is 5.7% while the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2012-2017 forecast period is 6.3%.<\/p>\n
The collaborative applications software category is forecast to have the highest growth in the short term (2013).\u00a0This category includes social software, which is growing from a lower revenue base.<\/p>\n
The collaborative applications category is also experiencing more cloud deployments than other categories and this represents new software investments.<\/p>\n
The structured data management software category is expected to show the strongest growth over the five-year forecast period with a 9.3% CAGR from 2012-2017, fueled by faster growth in the last 2-3 years of the forecast, the IDC says.<\/p>\n
Data management is at the core of the information-driven economy and will play a critical role in the implementation of Big Data and analytics, it says.<\/p>\n
On a regional basis, the emerging economies will experience stronger growth than in mature economies.<\/p>\n
The average 2012-2017 CAGR for Asia\/Pacific (excluding Japan), Latin America, and Central Eastern, Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) is 8.8% while the average CAGR for the mature regions \u2013 North America, Western Europe, and Japan \u2013 is 5.0%.<\/p>\n
The emerging regions have been gaining almost 0.7% of market share every year since 2008 and they are expected to represent almost 19% of global software revenues in 2017.<\/p>\n
IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker covers more than 800 software vendors across a total of 49 countries markets.<\/p>\n
Tablet sales are booming<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Steepest PC market decline yet for MEA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n