Free software sales in Russia will grow to $ 200 million by 2010

    Finam estimated Russian sales of free software in 2006 at $ 50 million . This market is growing faster than the domestic IT industry as a whole, and by 2010, analysts promise it a fourfold increase to $ 200 million. All Russian IT by that time will reach $ 40 billion, i.e. three times higher than last year.

    By 2010, the largest share of sales is expected in the server software market, where the share of open source programs can be 50%. At the same time, server software itself will occupy about 10% of the total server market (including hardware). In Russia as a whole, the share of server free software will be significantly higher than that in Europe and the USA, Finam predicts.

    The situation is different in the open source client software market - here the prospects are less promising. Currently, Linux accounts for approximately 0.5% of the client operating system market. Windows will retain its dominant position for the foreseeable future. According to Elina Karaeva, director of the Finama high-tech investment center, if schools continue to use Microsoft software, the barriers to distributing client free software in the country will increase. “The market can reorient to client Linux only after receiving support from the state,” Ms. Karaeva said. “If this does not happen, we assume that in the coming years the client free software market in Russia will not leave its infancy.”

    Free applications on the Windows platform in the country are more common. Firefox, OpenOffice.org, Gimp are present on at least 5-7% of computers.

    Investholding notes that Linux vendors are traditionally much more active in the upcoming mobile device market. According to forecasts, this operating system will become the leader of this segment, occupying about 40% on it even before 2010. “At the moment, in the Russian market, unlike, for example, the Chinese one, there are few mobile access devices with Linux OS, however, the actions of manufacturers (in particular, Nokia) give reason to believe that the situation is changing,” explains Elina Karaeva.

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