The security market's top 5 vendors (Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, IBM and EMC) own just 44% of the 2010 WW security software market, according to Gartner-- a fall from 2006's 60%.
The WW security software market's value in 2010 comes to $16.5Bn.
Gartner says the information security market remains fragmented even, even as it goes through "fairly intense" merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. As cybercriminals take advantage of new vulnerabilities, the market demands new security technologies-- the kind new start-ups tend to bring about.
These new start-ups build themselves a niche presence-- by either creating new technologies or implementing successful go-to-market strategies-- and manage to carve their slice of market share from incumbent vendors.
This leads to a market that's far from consolidated (as in the top 5 vendors owning 60 - 70% of the market), even if M&A activity remains a constant factor.
The analyst expects the future will see more consolidations taking place together with new players introducing further innovations as the security market's landscape remains a fairly dynamic one-- with many opportunities for players both established and starting up.