Oracle captures NT market

Oracle has pushed ahead of rival Microsoft in the NT database market, according to the latest figures from market watcher International Data (IDC).

Figures from IDC showed that Oracle's NT database licence revenue grew by 87.2 per cent in 1997, while Microsoft's increased by 56.7 per cent.

The figures equated to Oracle having just under 36 per cent of the market compared with Microsoft's 30.4 per cent share, worth $393 million and $335 million respectively.

IDC said Microsoft sold more units, but Oracle generated higher revenue because its licences supported more users.

Boston-based AMR Research backed up IDC's findings, releasing figures that showed Oracle had beaten Microsoft in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market as well as in the NT market. According to AMR, Oracle took 52 per cent of database licence revenue in the US ERP market in 1997, while Microsoft's SQL Server held only five per cent.

AMR found that NT is the dominant operating system in the US manufacturing sector and for the first time, multi-user NT has passed Unix in terms of licence revenues, a 24 per cent share against 23 per cent for Unix, which is down from 31 per cent in 1996.

The research company said manufacturers are focused on achieving lower lifecycle costs for applications and NT growth reflects this objective.

In the meantime, Oracle has attempted to downplay the threat that it will have to initiate price cuts to fight off competition from rival database players.

In a filing made at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the vendor stated: 'Intense competition may put pressure on Oracle to reduce prices, particularly in the database market where certain vendors offer deep discounts to recapture or gain market share.'