'Net Features : Gartner

The Business Intelligence (and Analytics) Explosion

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:15:00 GMT

According to recently released figures from analyst firm Gartner, the market for BI (business intelligence) software is expected to hit $13.8 billion in 2013.

While the pace of growth has seemed to slow, Gartner predicts that BI market spending globally will rise by 7 percent this year, compared to 16 percent growth in 2011. Total spending is expected to hit $17.1 billion by 2016 according to Gartner.

"BI and analytics have grown to become the fourth-largest application software segment as end users continue to prioritize BI and information-centric projects and spending to improve decision making and analysis," said Dan Sommer, principal research analyst at Gartner. "As more and more information is generated, business models need reinvention, and it's increasingly clear that mastering analytics on big data will be a key driver for the next economic cycle."

Get Ready for More Fake Online Reviews

Michael Garrity — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:30:00 GMT

Identifying – let alone actually combating – fake online reviews has been a constant source of angst for many business owners and marketers with an online presence. Now, I hate to break it to you guys, but it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. That is, at least, according to some new research unveiled by Gartner.

In the last few weeks, the publishing industry was rocked with news about authors creating fake accounts on Amazon and other sites to pad their product pages with phony positive reviews. The shock and awe, while upsetting to many in the field, was met with a blasé rolling of the eyes by restaurateurs, however, who have long had to deal with embellished (if not completely fake) online reviews, both good and bad, on sites like Yelp. Just ask the owner of a pizza restaurant who was photographed bear hugging President Obama, only to have his Yelp profile take the brunt of users upset by his encounter, who took to the page to post fake negative reviews to ruin his reputation on the site.

Unfortunately for pretty much all of us, this practice doesn’t seem to be going away. In fact, it will likely become more popular. Gartner predicts that by 2014, somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of all online reviews will be paid for by companies seeking to build bigger follower bases, generate video views, get Facebook Likes and, of course, display more positive online reviews. And they’re willing to solicit these things by offering coupons or special promotions or, in some cases, just straight cash.

With so many avenues on the ‘Net that businesses can use to deceptively control consumers’ perception of their brands, it begs the question, “Who can we trust online these days?”

Free Apps Dominate the Market

Allison Howen — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:30:00 GMT

If your company is thinking about launching a mobile application, it might want to have a starting price of free – at least if it wants to have a better chance of being downloaded.

This is because a recent study from Gartner reveals that worldwide mobile app downloads are expected to surpass 45.6 billion in 2012, however, free apps will make up 40.1 billion of those downloads – meaning that free apps are predicted to account for 89 percent of total app downloads in 2012.

"In terms of the apps that consumers are buying, 90 percent of the paid-for downloads cost less than $3 each," said Sandy Shen, Research Director at Gartner. "Similar to free apps, lower-priced apps will drive the majority of downloads. Apps between 99 cents and $2.99 will account for 87.5 percent of paid-for downloads in 2012, and 96 percent by 2016."

Nevertheless, developers can still monetize their apps by using an in-app purchase model. This is because consumers are more likely to download a free app and decide to spend money on in-app purchases if they receive a good user experience. In fact, Gartner’s study predicts that the number of downloads featuring in-app purchases will increase from 5 percent of total downloads in 2011 to 30 percent in 2016, which will lead to in-app purchases driving 41 percent of app store revenue by 2016.

But for those who need further proof that mobile has already arrived as a major player in the tech industry, the study also reveals that Apple’s App Store is expected to have more than 21 billion downloads in 2012 – which is a 74 percent increase compared to 2011. But it is also important to note that Gartner analysts claim that aside from major global app stores, such as Apple's App Store and Google Play, some third-party stores are gaining steam by using their brands to attract users or take advantage of the lack of dominant players in some markets.

"Amazon has appealed to users with its strong brand, global presence and a good selection of high-quality content while Facebook's recently launched App Center — supporting both mobile devices and desktops — will become a powerful competitor due to its strong brand and leading position in social networking and gaming," said Shen. "In China, there is a boom market of independent Android stores, due to the lack of presence of Google Play and 'weak' stores from CSPs. We expect to see more new entrants to the market, aiming to deepen relationships with their customers and/or to capture some of this growth market."

While only time will tell which apps, brands and stores will rise to the top of the Mobile World, one thing is for certain – no price beats free.

Check out Gartner's graph below to view more of the study's app download insights:

Biz Intelligence Trends Down Under

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:30:00 GMT

Revenue from business intelligence software – including BI platforms, analytic applications and corporate performance management software – in Australia is forecast to grow over 11 percent to 406.4 million in 2012 according to Gartner.

Revenue from BI software worldwide, according to Gartner, is forecast to reach 12.5 billion in 2012, up 7 percent over the prior year. The opportunity in the Australian market and the BI market worldwide comes on the heels of the dramatic increase in big data (large datasets, which, enables marketers to better identify subtle patterns and trends). The challenge comes obviously in handling big data and accurately analyzing it.

“The extreme volume, velocity and variety of data will add stress to current approaches to BI and are increasingly capturing the attention of both the BI industry and buyers,” said Gartner managing vice president Ian Bertram.

The significant challenges of big data in the BI market could deepen a widening BI maturity gap between organizations in Australia according to Bertram. “In Australia, many organizations are still focused on foundational BI concepts that revolve around strategy, skills, competencies and process,” he said. “Then we have organizations looking for more advanced analytics capabilities to build on those foundations. This is really where they need to be to set themselves up for the future.”

Related Reading from Website Magazine:
- Domain Name Registration Down Under

Gartner: Social, Mobile to Drive Half of Web Sales by 2015

Allison Howen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:00:00 GMT

By 2015, companies will generate 50 percent of Web sales from social media and mobile applications, according to Gartner Inc.

The future of e-commerce was discussed at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, where it was concluded that since the number of mobile phones is starting to pass PCs, customers will start to use mobile browsers and location-based applications as the main type of interaction.

"E-commerce organizations will need to scale up their operations to handle the increased visitation loads resulting from customers not having to wait until they are in front of a PC to obtain answers to questions or place orders," says Gene Alvarez, research vice president at Gartner. "In time, e-commerce vendors will begin to offer context-aware mobile-shopping solutions as part of their overall Web sales offerings."

Furthermore, according to Gartner, 80 percent of North American and European online sellers will expand to other countries by 2013 – including Brazil, Russia, India, Africa, Japan and China. This growth is due to the expansion of the Internet, which has created new sales opportunities throughout the world.

"The increasing availability of access to the Internet via PCs, laptops and mobile devices is creating new sales channels in countries, because entry barriers are lowering, thereby increasing the number of online shoppers," says Mr. Alvarez. "By entering these countries via an Internet sales model, organizations can establish a presence in locations without having to create a physical sales location."

It is safe to say that the Internet has created vast opportunities for retailers, which will continue to grow as technology evolves. In addition, businesses should be prepared to take advantage of location-based applications, which provide a new marketing avenue for businesses to push personalized and local content to mobile devices, therefore driving sales both on and offline.

Gartner Report Sees Positive Outlook for WCM Market, Sitecore

Linc Wonham — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:30:00 GMT

IT research and analysis firm Gartner, Inc. has released its 2010 Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management report, in which it declares the content management sector a vibrant part of the Web industry that will likely surpass $1 billion in revenues this year.

The report evaluated numerous Web Content Management (WCM) vendors based on a set of criteria that included customer experience, innovation, market understanding, marketing and sales strategies, product strategies and business models. Among the leading visionaries that Gartner anoints for the space in 2010 are Sitecore, Oracle, Autonomy, SDL and Open Text. Challengers and niche players include Microsoft, IBM, Alterian and Dynamicweb Software.

Gartner gave Sitecore particularly high praise in the business-to-business domain, citing the recent additions of Email Campaign Manager and Online Marketing Suite to the core platform of its flagship CMS product, which is based on .NET. The Gartner report called Sitecore an industry leader in WCM applications designed for the .NET environment, providing its customers with the scalability, performance, flexibility, and integration capabilities they need to manage multiple websites and seamlessly deliver compelling Web experiences.

The report stated that today’s vendors are battling to differentiate themselves based on three sets of capabilities: usability, interoperability and consumability. It also projects a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent for the WCM market through 2014, based on the increasing emphasis on the online channel and improving visitors’ experience. That’s a positive outlook not only for the content management market but also for Web users everywhere.

Sun Microsystems Releases MySQL 5.1

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:48:00 GMT

This week Sun Microsystems announced the general availability of MySQL 5.1. This is a major new release of the world's most popular open source database. The production-ready MySQL 5.1 software is available for download now at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/. MySQL 5.1 has been downloaded over 250,000 times in the days it has been generally available.

"MySQL 5.1's low total cost combined with its high performance, scalability and enterprise-class features is the right database solution for many large corporations and Web companies, especially in today's economic climate,” said Marten Mickos, senior vice president, Database Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "With more than a quarter of a million downloads of MySQL 5.1 in its first ten days, we are proud to deliver this robust product that is garnering such interest from the open source community."

New industry research shows the continued growth and maturation of the market for open source database management systems (DBMS). In Gartner, Inc.’s “The Growing Maturity of Open-Source Database Management Systems,” published in late November, Gartner VP Donald Feinberg reported that a recently conducted study by the firm demonstrated a 50% increase from 2007 to 2008 in the usage of open source DBMSs in production, repeating previous findings that revenue growth in the open source DBMS segment grew at a rate of 42% from 2006 to 2007, far outpacing the overall DBMS market at 13%.

Moving forward, Gartner projects 40% CAGR growth in the open source DBMS segment over the next five years, resulting in an estimated $1 billion market by 2013.