Microsoft gives Oracle a bloody nose

NEWS Microsoft has dealt a major blow to Oracle by sneaking into the lead, by market share, in the hotly contested Windows database software sector. A study by research group Gartner found Microsoft last year enjoyed a market share of 38 per cent compared to Oracle's, which slipped to 37.3 per cent. Gartner claims it's the first time Microsoft's market share has surpassed Oracle's for databases running on the Windows 2000 and NT operating systems. Mark Tennant, Windows 2000 product server manager at Microsoft, said: "The results back up the price and performance of the SQL server. Customer sales are showing there is a better alternative [to Oracle] without having to pay over the odds." Simon Stow, Oracle's senior director of 9i marketing for EMEA, defended Oracle on price, saying Microsoft users were paying less but getting less for their money. "You get what you pay for," he said. Microsoft can't compete on functionality so they bring up price." IBM also closed in on Oracle in this highly competitive market, seeing its share jump 3.3 per cent over the previous year to 18.5 per cent. Overall, however Oracle retained its lead as the number one database software maker, expanding its lead to 33.8 per cent over its nearest rival IBM. Oracle was boosted by the fact it secured a 66.2 per cent share of the$3.6bn Unix database market where IBM surrendered second place to Informix - the company it recently acquired for $1bn. For related news see:
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