Here. In the list:
In the infrastructure software world, systems vendors like IBM, HP, Sun, and EMC will continue to buy up companies, large and small, to fill out their software portfolios and create a complete dynamic infrastructure platform. Likewise, independent infrastructure software players like Microsoft, CA, and Novell will spend 2005 expanding their offerings through mergers, acquisitions, and alliances. According to Gens, The interesting question is: Are these two communities that have depended on each other for success headed for a showdown? And will Dell, which has stayed largely out of the software game, be forced to follow IBM, HP and the others? In the $100 billion application market, it will become clearer that competition is moving away from developing the killer app. Instead, applications software vendors like SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft, and middleware vendors including IBM and BEA, will continue jockeying to define and own the killer application platform. The consumer space will continue to be dominated by the latest digital devices, with new handheld game consoles, hard-disk drive MP3 players, and digital cameras leading the market. Broadband adoption will also make further gains as price points fall further.
