Linux sales down, but not out, writes News.com:
According to market research firm IDC, Linux sales declined nearly 5 percent in 2001 to $80 million, but are expected to grow to a $280 million market in 2006.
Meanwhile, Windows sales climbed 11 percent to more than $10 billion last year, according to IDC analyst Al Gillen.
“The Linux operating system market, from a revenue perspective, accounts for one half of 1 percent of the total operating system revenue each year, or roughly two days’ worth of Microsoft’s operating system revenue,” Gillen said. “On the second day of January, Microsoft had generated more operating system revenue than the Linux community (will for the entire year).”
The opportunity for Linux lies in the emerging markets, and it is not being tapped. The next 500 million users can pay USD 10 per annum to create a USD 5 billion market for Linux in the next 5-7 years. No on’es yet looking at them seriously enough.
