Gartner: IBM, Microsoft Gain Against Oracle in Database Market

IBM Oracle

Bolstered by last year's Informix acquisition, IBM saw its share grow 4.3 percent last year to 34.6 percent of new licenses sold, up from 33.7 percent in 2000. Informix's database products "gave IBM the critical push it needed to take the market leadership position," Colleen Graham, a Gartner Dataquest analyst, said in a statement.

But Microsoft may be the real winner. Its share soared nearly 18 percent to 16.3 percent of new licenses sold last year, up from 14 percent in 2000. Oracle, meanwhile, saw its share shrink 4.9 percent, from 34.1 percent to 32 percent.

The key Windows database segment grew 11 percent last year, to $2.55 billion. That respectable growth pales in comparison with the 34 percent surge achieved by Windows databases the previous year. Microsoft moved into the top slot in that market last year with 39.9 percent share, and Oracle come in second at 34 percent.

The numbers reinforce a perception that Oracle's database lead is under assault by lower-priced offerings from IBM and Microsoft.

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But Oracle begs to differ, saying it has seen virtually no defections from its huge installed base. Oracle executives also take exception to comparisons of its database revenue with IBM and Microsoft numbers, which Oracle claims include noncore database products.

Microsoft, for example, includes Access sales along with SQL Server while IBM lumps in such diverse offerings as ISAM and VMS with its DB2 database sales, said Rene Bonvanie, vice president of Oracle9i marketing.

Bonvanie acknowledged that Oracle was hurt by last year's tech spending slowdown, but "market share is more than last year's sales. That's one datapoint among many. If you go back to where we're selling, which is into our installed base, over 75 percent of our revenue is from the existing base. and you'll see no erosion there. We have massive mind share."

According to an Oracle-financed study by the FactPoint Group, Oracle's database remains entrenched in the Fortune 100. The study concluded that 98 percent of Fortune 100 companies plan to maintain or increase their investment in Oracle9i installations. Bonvanie said FactPoint surveyed all of the Fortune 100 companies in more than 400 interviews.