Packaged software market to grow 11.1% in 2006 in Asia-Pacific

According to IDC, the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) packaged software market is expected to grow by 11.1% for year 2006 amidst sustained price pressure, increasingly integrated selling strategies, and continuing market consolidation. IDC expects the content management applications market to be a hot button due to the expansion of information management and forecast this market to grow at 14.4%. Software usage will be significantly addressed with the introduction of 'software-as-a-service' mode of subscription. The enterprise applications will be among the first entry points for companies to consider such mode of subscription, especially those within the SME segment. IDC believes the SME will contribute 28.4% of the $13.4 bln packaged software market in the region 2005. Most countries are expected to experience annual growth ranging from 8.1% to 11.6% in their local packaged software market. The traditionally mature countries including Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan will see slightly lower growths ranging between 6.2% to 7.9%. The twin-country growth engines, India and China, are set to achieve an annual growth of 20.3% and 17.2% respectively.