Worldwide Enterprise Instant Messaging Applications and Management Products 2006-2010 Forecast and 2005 Vendor Shares: IM Is on Its Way into the Workplace

This IDC study presents IDC's five-year, 2006-2010 view of the worldwide enterprise instant messaging (EIM) applications and management products market by region and 2005 top vendor revenue shares worldwide. In addition to providing revenue and user forecasts for the two submarkets - EIM applications and EIM management/security applications - this study presents user forecasts for consumer IM services overall and consumer IM services used primarily for business purposes. IDC Leadership Grids present our view of the relative market positioning of the top EIM application vendors and the top EIM management/security vendors. Finally, we offer our guidance on what actions EIM vendors and their customers should take to make the purchase, deployment, and use of enterprise IM successful in the future.

Note that the market forecasts and analysis contained here update those published in Worldwide Enterprise Instant Messaging Applications 2005-2009 Forecast and 2004 Vendor Shares: Clearing the Decks for Substantial Growth.

"Instant messaging is very 'present' in the workplace, and organizations need to provide the kind of integration, management, and security that has previously been provided only for email to ensure that instant messaging interactions and content are present and ready for business." - Mark Levitt, IDC program VP, Collaborative Computing and the Enterprise Workplace