Application development software is projected to be worth $US9 billion a year by the end of 2012, according to new market research figures released by Gartner.
The Gartner figures, republished by Dr. Dobbs, reveal year-on-year growth for the sector stands at 1.8%, with growth driven by cloud computing, mobile devices and open source development tools.
Gartner principal research analyst Asheesh Raina says open source development tools are reshaping the industry.
“Open source software tools will continue to erode revenue for some AD categories in design, testing, and web development,” says Raina.
“This is being driven primarily by the success of Eclipse and NetBeans, as well as by overall revitalization of the market by new small software providers looking for technical and market-disruptive approaches for offering products.”
“Limited budgets and economic conditions compelling enough to focus on cost reduction also fuel the use of open-source software in various development projects.”
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
