Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd
From: awd@dbase.A-T.COM (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Market share for DOS database products
Summary: Top of my head...
Message-ID: <1991Apr18.230012.12838@dbase.A-T.COM>
Date: 18 Apr 91 23:00:12 GMT
References: <71280@brunix.UUCP>
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Inc.
Lines: 51

In article <71280@brunix.UUCP>, pew@cs.brown.edu (Peter E. Wagner) writes:
> Does anyone know the approximate market share breakdown for database
> software in the MS-DOS realm?  What about for just dBase dialects?

This is very non-scientific; I'm quoting my recollection of press
accounts--if I knew corporate secrets, I couldn't tell you (well, I
could tell you, but I'd have to kill you :-):

	dBASE III+/IV:	47%
	Paradox:	19%
	Fox:		 6%
	Others:		18%

Clipper, WordTech, Oracle, etc. are lost in the noise--no one 
competitor has more than 5% except those shown, as I remember.
The article I read noted that Paradox's growth and dBASE's decline
rates were significant--I remember when dBASE's share was in the
sixties.

These numbers surprise me because in the developer circles I
travel in, Fox and Clipper are much more popular than they seem
when you look at overall market share--it's true that techies
influence sales, but it's also true that techies are a very
small percentage of the marketplace.  You can't go wrong buying
the industry leader (IBM, Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, dBASE...)
and choosing something else involves an investment of time and
thought and some risk.

dBASE shook the marketplace in '89 when dBASE IV 1.0 got bad
press.  People assume that buying the market leader assures
stability and minimum risk; shake that faith and watch your
market share fall.  Compaq took off, if you remember, when 
IBM had problems getting reliable hard disks for its new PC/AT.
Luckily for Ashton-Tate, our competitors didn't seem ready to
pounce.  I think people went to Borland desparate for stability.
Borland delivers that, but I've heard Paradox called a "toy"
for large applications.  If Ashton-Tate can convince the market
that we are stable again (and it's all perceptions, anyway),
I think our market share will climb again.  It's already stopped
eroding, but gaining share is known to be extremely difficult
in any market.

Long-winded response unsupported by facts.  Hope it helps, anyway.

/alastair/


-- 
|Disclaimer: I am speaking for myself, not as a spokesman for Ashton-Tate,
|which does not monitor my outbursts here.  I reserve all rights to my
|opinions in terms of commercial endorsements.