IDC predicts WAN optimization market will grow by at least 16%. The revenues will rise from $236 mln this year to $427 mln by 2008.

The software deployment market grew 4.4% last year, to just over $7 bln, and will continue to grow at a similar clip through 2008, IDC said. IBM, BEA and Oracle retained their top rankings from 2002, with market shares of 35.6%, 11.5% and 5.9%, respectively. But the mainframe and OS/400 systems that have given IBM its commanding lead will be displaced gradually, mostly by Unix, Linux and Windows systems.

Spending in the global entertainment and media (E&M) industry will hit $1.7 trillion in 2008, with swift gains in Internet advertising, according to a study released Tuesday. Strength in the Asia/Pacific entertainment and media market will drive a global 6.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), compared to 4.2% in 2003, the study predicted. Internet advertising will grow to a projected $18.9 billion in 2008 with a 12.7% CAGR, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the comScore Media Metrix ranking of top 50 U.S. Internet properties, nearly 11.9 million unique visitors went to the Bank of America site in May, ranking it as the No. 41 property among U.S. Internet users. That was up from 10.3 million in February, when the bank broke into the top 50.

Even as overall PC shipments grew 12% in 2003, Apple’s computer shipments were flat for the year, according to research firm Fulcrum Global Partners quoted in Wall Street Journal. At the end of March, Apple dropped out of research firm IDC’s top 10 list of world-wide computer makers for the first time ever. Apple’s share of the global computer market has eroded across the home, business and government markets over the past year, dropping to 1.7% overall at the end of March, down from 1.8% in early 2003, says Gartner (though its share is up in the education market). And in the company’s last fiscal quarter, Apple’s computer sales were sequentially flat or down across all models, particularly for its flagship iMac desktops.

In 2003, the Software Licensing Authentication Token (SLAT) market had decent growth. This might sound surprising during a time of economic slowdown, but many vendors turned to SLATs in 2003 to protect
their revenue streams from software piracy. Both companies that provide high value software and those with less costly products are interested in using SLATs. Total revenue for this segment was $117.8 in 2003. The segment grew by 14.5% between 2003 and 2002. Aladdin Knowledge Systems maintained market leadership in 2003 with a 35.4% share.

The nations’ top advertisers ignited growth in the nation’s media in 2003 by scoring a resounding 9% growth in their U.S. advertising to $90.31 billion, according to Advertising Age’s 49th annual 100 Leading National Advertisers’ report. General Motors Corp. once again led the nation in total advertising at $3.43 billion, down 1.4%. Closing fast was No. 2 Procter & Gamble Co. at $3.32 billion, up 24.3%. P&G would have caught GM with ad growth of 28.3%. In 2004, it seems poised to reclaim the ad crown it lost to the automaker in 1997.

Driving the ad-spending growth in 2003 were marketers in four key Top 100 categories - pharmaceuticals, claiming $12.13 billion in total advertising, up 14.3%; entertainment and media at $10.9 billion, up 11.1%; personal care, at $8.09 billion, up 9%; and telecommunications, at $7.6 billion, up 15.3%. Autos, the biggest ad category at $13.78 billion grew only 5.4% in total advertising from 10 automakers in the Top 100. Advertising not only dropped at GM, but fell 0.8% at No. 6 Ford Motor Co.

Global unit sales for all (not just digital) TVs will grow from 170 mln in 2003 to 196 mln in 2008, as consumers begin to replace their analog sets. This represents approximately $61 bln in 2003, growing to $86 bln in 2008. Further, with currently less than 20% of U.S. DTV-owning households watching actual HD content year 7.1% of global TV shipments were digital; this year IDC expects the percentage will reach higher than 12% to 60% by 2008.

In Q1 2004 Australian LCD market experienced a record growth of 20.7% in unit shipments. LCD was the leader with 17.7% market share, followed by Samsung (16.4%) and Philips (11.9%). 53% of all the PCs shipped in Australia sell with an LCD. Among the branded PCs the ratio is even higher - 55%.

Exactly 72% of US adults ages 18 and older display some level of interest in a product that would connect their home entertainment system to the Internet, reports Ipsos-Insight. The researchers decided to skip the industry terms media hubs and media centers sticking to their own “digital den” definition. So 49% are somewhat interested, while 32% are very interested. As for the familiarity, 31% are somewhat familiar and 5% of US adults are very familiar.

New research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the New Millennium Research Project show that 27% of Internet users have heard of Voice over Internet Protocol phone calling, and 13% of that population have considered adopting VoIP in the home. This translates into 34 million Americans who have heard of VoIP and 4 million who have considered getting the service at home. The survey also found that 11% of Internet users, nearly 14 million Americans, have made some form of phone call over the Internet.

IDC says Australian CRM market was worth $426.1 million in 2003 (Australian dollars, which are 70 US cents) and will reach $563.1 million by 2008 ? compound annual growth of 5.7%. In 2003, CRM software accounted for $150.1 million and CRM services $276 million. By 2008, CRM software will reach $212.1 million and CRM services $351 million.

New York Times quotes Gartner report on desktop operating systems. By the end of the year, Linux will be running on 1% of the desktop PC’s worldwide, compared with 2.8% for Apple MacOS, and 96% for Microsoft Windows, according to Gartner.

Maxim magazine (not your usual source for quality technology and Internet reporting) in the last issue conducts a survey on women to help the men understand the female mind better. Among other questions, the subject of electronic snooping is brought up. 37% of respondents would not refuse an opportunity to glance over his e-mail box, 28% would go as far as read some messages that might seem suspicious, while the same amount - 28% - think interfering in someone’s e-mail is just plain wrong. 6% of the responding females would go as far as implant a chip in his brain just to find out what’s going on.

eWeek cites an Insight Research report claiming that only by 2009 the number of installed VOIP in the enterprise will be larger than the number of incumbent PBX systems. The major factor slowing the VOIP uptake? The price of IP phones tends to be 25% higher. $4.3 billion of PBX equipment will be shipped to enterprise customers this year.

An estimated 63 million people, or 45% of consumers online, buy products and bank on the Internet, said Gartner. More than half of the nearly 2 million phishing victims said it led to identity theft, in which criminals used their personal information to pose as them and buy goods, Gartner said.

About 64% of e-mail monitored in May by spam-filtering company Brightmail was spam. That is up from 58% in December, Brightmail says. What that means for the bottom line: It costs companies nearly $2,000 per employee a year in lost productivity, double from a year ago, Nucleus Research says. Russian mail service Yandex.ru, which provides daily statistics on spam monitoring, claims that it’s between 50% and 80% for Russian users. Yandex runs a free Web mail offering unlimited mailboxes, so it’s possible Yandex gets more spam, since its users open up a free e-mail account just for that purpose.

Scott Loftessness points out to the breakdown of sources for campaign contributions for Presidental candidate John Kerry. New York Times points out that out of $100 million raised, 75% of donations for John Kerry were raised from the Internet, phone and mail solicitations. Internet led the way by generating 44% of Kerry’s campagin contributions.