IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker® provides subscribers with an in-depth look into the competitive landscape and the market dynamics shaping the current and future direction of the global software industry. It tracks and details individual software companies' historical business performance, and it forecasts the development of the industry five years into the future — across 52 geographies and 79 discrete software market segments. In addition, the tracker provides an understanding of the transition from traditional on-premises deployments to public cloud services by segmenting software revenue by deployment type, company, geography, and market segment. With the rapid transition from 2nd Platform to 3rd Platform technologies, it is critical for software vendors, public cloud services providers, supply chain partners, and the investment community to understand the underlying dynamics behind this transition. This extensive coverage of vendor share information enables both global and local players to benchmark themselves in terms of business growth and market penetration.

Technology Coverage


This tracker provides total market size and vendor shares for 79 functional software markets, with options for further submarket data views in select add-on products. Measurement for this tracker is total software revenue, which includes license, maintenance, and subscription revenue (including public cloud services). The 20 secondary software markets that group the 79 functional software markets reported are listed.

Core Coverage

  • Analytics and business intelligence software
  • Application development software
  • Application platforms
  • Artificial intelligence platforms
  • Collaborative applications
  • Content workflow and management applications
  • Customer resource management (CRM) applications
  • Data management software
  • Endpoint management software
  • Engineering applications
  • Enterprise resource management (ERM) applications
  • Integration and orchestration middleware
  • Network software
  • Physical and virtual computing software
  • Production and operations applications
  • Security software
  • Software quality and life-cycle tools
  • Storage software
  • Supply chain management (SCM) applications
  • System and service management software

Deployment Type Segmentation

  • On-premises/other
  • Public cloud services

Geographic Scope


  • Asia/Pacific excl. Japan and China (13): Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Rest of APeJC
  • Canada
  • Central and Eastern Europe (6): Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Rest of CEE
  • Japan
  • Latin America (7): Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Rest of Latin America
  • The Middle East and Africa (6): Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Rest of MEA
  • PRC
  • United States
  • Western Europe (16): Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom

Data Deliverables


This tracker is delivered on a semiannual basis via a web-based interface for online querying and downloads. The deliverables for this tracker are listed. For a complete delivery schedule, please contact an IDC sales representative.

  • Half-year vendor shares by market, geography, and deployment type
  • Annual five-year forecasts by market, geography, and deployment type

Forecast Coverage


Annual five-year market forecasts for this tracker are updated semiannually and include five-year annual market projections. Forecasts are available at the worldwide, regional, and country levels. Details of the forecasts included in this tracker are listed.

Core Forecast Coverage

  • Markets (see the Technology Coverage section)
  • Regions
  • Countries

Deployment Type Segmentation

  • On-premises/other
  • Public cloud services
  • Rasmus Andsbjerg

    Associate Vice President, Public Cloud Services and Software Trackers

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  • Julie Ross

    Research Director, Worldwide Software and Public Cloud Services Trackers

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  • Martin Nuska

    Senior Research Manager, Software, Czech Republic

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  • Manish Ranjan

    Director - Software & Cloud

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  • Takashi Manabe

    Senior Research Director, Software/Service Solutions, Data & Analytics, IDC Japan

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  • Chris Zhang

    Research Director, IDC Asia/Pacific Software Research Group.

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  • Lizzie Li

    Associate Research Director

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  • Marcelo Leiva

    Senior Researach Analyst, Software, Latin America

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