SAP’s Acquisitions Keep Stock Price Up

According to Gartner’s Forecast Analysis: Enterprise Application Software, Worldwide, 2011-2016, 4Q12 Update, global spending on enterprise application software is projected to grow to $158 billion by the year 2016. Enterprise Software spending stood at $115.1 billion in 2011. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) will dominate spending on software with 20.8% being spent on them by the year 2016. The ERP market is projected to grow annually at 6.7% over the period 2011 through 2016 to reach $32.9 billion worldwide.

>>>

Featured Videos

IBM’s Big Data Moves

Gartner’s latest estimates on worldwide IT spending peg the market to grow 4.2% this year to $3.7 trillion. Earlier last year, Gartner was anticipating growth of 3.8% for the year 2013. The report estimates that worldwide spending on devices, which includes PCs, tablets, mobile phones, and printers, will rise 6.3% to $666 billion. Enterprise software spending is projected to grow 6.4% during the year to $296 billion as customers invest more in security, storage management, and customer relationship management. Starting in 2014, Gartner expects organizations to increase their big data and information management–related spending.

>>>

Salesforce Rides High on Strong CRM Growth

According to Gartner’s report, sales of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are projected to grow 7% annually over the period 2011 through 2016 to $32.9 billion. Within the industry, the global CRM market will see strong growth at annualized rates of 9% over the period to $18.6 billion. The report also reveals that enterprise application software spending will grow annually at 6.5% over the period to $158 billion by 2016. Within enterprise application software, 20.8% of the market will be dominated by ERP systems and 12% by CRM software. SaaS-based CRM will be a big market as well. More than half of the CRM market opportunity will be SaaS based in 2016, compared with 36% during the past year. SaaS-based CRM will see annual growth rates of 15% compared with the 9% growth projected for the overall CRM market.

>>>

Intel Diversifies

According to a Gartner report, Worldwide PC Shipments in Fourth Quarter of 2012, global PC Shipments fell 5% last quarter to 90.3 million units. The increasing availability of lower cost tablet devices has eaten into PC sales. The launch of significant new operating systems such as Windows 8 is also not able to stir up demand. PC chip maker Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) is facing the heat.

>>>

Zynga’s Online Gamble

A report by Lazard Capital released last year expects the social gaming market to be worth $9 billion by 2015. The social gaming market has seen growth through the increased adoption of social networking sites, such as Facebook. The report suggests that nearly 41% of the U.S. Internet-using population accesses social games through these networking sites.

>>>

Success on iOS but Weak Console Game Performance for Electronic Arts

According to investment firm Digi Capital, in their Global Games Investment Review 2013, the digital games industry is projected to grow at an annual rate of 12.2% over 2012 through 2016 to reach $83 billion. Online and mobile games will continue to drive growth in the market as sales of console games dwindle. In 2012, online and mobile games amounted to 49% of total global video games revenues. Their share is projected to grow to 57%, translating to $48 billion, by the year 2016.

>>>

Baidu, Alibaba Grow on China’s Increasing Internet Usage

China continues to make strong progress in deepening their internet penetration rates. As of last year, 42% of the country’s population had access to the internet, compared with a mere 4.6% in 2002. According to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) China will continue to improve the user experience of the service by increasing the number of households with broadband access. By the end of the current year, more than 70% of China’s Internet users will have access to broadband service, adding nearly 35 million households this year. Last year, the number of households with broadband grew 49% to 94 million. Increasing access to faster Internet speeds ensures strong growth for the Internet players in the country.

>>>

Online Travel Counts on International and Mobile Growth

According to PhoCusWright, a travel research firm, global online travel bookings grew 8% over the year last year to $313 billion. The researcher estimates that online travel market sales will grow 7% a year this year. Meanwhile, the online travel sector is focusing on international and mobile expansion to ensure it captures a bigger share of the slowly recovering travel market.

>>>

Athena Health Acquires Epocrates

A 2011 report by IDC estimates that the electronic health reform (EHR) market will grow from $1.9 billion in 2009 to $3.8 billion by 2015. Outpatient EHR is projected to account for $1.41 billion of the market, and the inpatient EHR services will contribute the remaining $2.4 billion by 2015. A more recent report by IDC continues to project growth, as it suggests EHR penetration to grow from 25% in 2009 to 80% by 2016. Hopefully, this will positively impact healthcare administration costs at large.

>>>

Pure Storage Grows on Flash Memory

According to the 2013 McClean Report, the total flash memory market (NAND and NOR) is estimated to have grown 2% last year to $30.4 billion.  While growth in the flash memory market has been driven by the increased consumer adoption of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, the enterprise segment is also shifting toward this segment. Flash memory is helping improve faster communication channels and system response times in organizations. A Gartner study estimates that the enterprise Flash memory market will be worth $4 billion by 2015.

>>>