Re: database market share 2003

It makes sense to invest in any product or technology that can make a profit, and give you a good return for your investment. The 5% number is irrelevant if further investment is rewarded with more sales. A good example is IBM's original commercial database, SQL/DS (also known as System R and now known as DB2 for VSE & VM). IBM has continued to release new function on this platform since its debut 23 years ago. You don't have to have 100% of a market ot make a profit - you don't even need 10% - consider BMW if you want an example in another industry. Data Goob wrote: > If I were an Informix customer who just could not live without > Informix, it would be most interesting to know what the future > holds for those customers. Last I heard Informix only had 3% > of the market, similar to many other niche database markets. > It may be a great database, but in the final analysis it is > totally irrelevant when compared to what DB2, Oracle, and MS-SQL > are doing. If your statement is true, 140 million is indeed a > lot of money, but compared with over 2 billion in revenue for > DB2 it is not. It looks like side money. Is it really sensible > for IBM to spend any kind of effort on a product that brings > in little more than 5% of its database revenue? I would think > staying with Informix and its certain death would get people > interested in the future. Technically speaking, most of the white > papers I've read point to DB2 as the clear winner in just about > every single category and puzzling why anyone here would even consider > Oracle or MS. The one area of relevance that Informix **does** > bring to the table is that DB2 will be incorporating many Informix > features. If I were an Informix customer I would consider that > good news, but it doesn't look like that here, it looks like a > bunch of sour grapes for Informix peoples. > > "rkusenet" <rkusenet@sympatico.ca> wrote in message news:2i8tl1FkdmbtU1@uni-berlin.de... > >>"scottishpoet" <dryburghj@yahoo.com> wrote >> >>>In the UNIX segment of the database market, Gartner said sales fell >>>5.9% to $2.34 billion last year as most of the leading vendors >>>declined. Oracle's new license sales fell 8.3% to $1.34 billion, or >>>57.4% share; while IBM's sales fell 5.8% to $586.5 million, or 25.1% >>>share. >> >>Informix's total new license sales in 2003 was 140 million. >>Even assuming that all of those 140 million is on Unix, >>it means sales of Db2 on unix has overtaken Informix. >>Interesting. Only last year or so I read that Informix was >>still outselling Db2 in Unix despite step child treatment >>by IBM. >> >> >> >> > > > >