This IDC study provides a detailed description of IDC's software market taxonomy. For 2008, the taxonomy includes 81 individual functional markets grouped within three primary segments: applications, application development and deployment, and system infrastructure software. Revenue is also segmented across three geographic regions and nine operating environments.

Additionally, IDC defines a wide range of "competitive" markets. Competitive markets are combinations of whole or fractions of functional markets that reflect such market dynamics as the problem being solved or the technology on which the software is based.

IDC's software market taxonomy is the basis for the relational multidimensional schema of the IDC Software Market Forecaster research database. The information from this continually updated database is used by IDC's software Continuous Intelligence Services (CISs) (i.e., our subscription research services) to generate consistent packaged software market sizing and forecasts. In addition, for more detailed market or vendor data please see the Software Market Forecaster products, which are quantitative pivot table companions to IDC CISs. These products segment market or vendor revenue by geographic region, operating environment, industry, and company-size segment. For more information about these products, please contact Melita Marks, [email protected], or your IDC account representative.

"IDC's software taxonomy represents a collectively exhaustive and mutually exclusive view of the worldwide software marketplace," said Dick Heiman, director, Global Software Model and Forecast Management, and compiler of the taxonomy study. "It continues to be the premier source for defining and categorizing packaged software."