"There are clear indications that the consumer segment has begun to commoditize, and we expect to see a major change in product offerings and functionality that will affect this market as well as the enterprise segment," said Nicole Latimer-Livingston, principal research analyst for Gartner. "Beyond antivirus, users also require anti-spyware capabilities and certain behavior-blocking and firewall-type functionality for their desktops. Currently, it is necessary to buy four or more separate products. However, the market for individual desktop security products is beginning to converge, and existing vendors will move in the general direction of end-point security suites."
The antivirus software market is a mature market with the top three vendors accounting for 86 percent of the market in 2005 Symantec continued to dominate the market with a 53.6 percent market share. McAfee and Trend Micro followed with 18.8 percent and 13.8 percent market share, respectively. Although Panda Software only garnered 3.2 percent of the market in 2005, its strong presence in the European small and midsize business (SMB) market helped push it to 23.9 percent growth.
Gartner has traditionally measured market share in terms of new license revenue. However, due to the emergence and increasing popularity of open-source software and buyer consumption models, such as hosted and subscription offerings, Gartner has moved to measure market share in terms of total software revenue, which includes revenue generated from new license, updates, subscriptions and hosting, technical support and maintenance. Professional services and hardware revenue are not included in total software revenue.
"The worldwide antivirus software market is expected to continue its double-digit growth for the short term. However, the market for stand-alone antivirus and anti-spyware products for businesses and consumers will eventually start to decline as interest for end-point security product suites continues to grow," said Ms. Latimer-Livingston. "In addition, Microsoft's entry into the consumer antivirus market is expected to unleash stronger price competition, which will likely lower the overall market revenue opportunity."
Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Market Share: Antivirus (Enterprise and Consumer), Worldwide, 2005." The report provides market share results for the antivirus market in seven worldwide regions and breaks out the enterprise and consumer segments.
