Customer relationship management largest of all software markets: Gartner

At the end of 2017, worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) software revenue overtook that of database management systems (DBMSs), making CRM the largest of all software markets, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide CRM software revenue amounted to $39.5 billion in 2017 overtaking DBMS revenue, which reached $36.8 billion in the same year. “In 2018, CRM software revenue will continue to take the lead of all software markets and be the fastest growing software market with a growth rate of 16 per cent,” said Julian Poulter, research director at Gartner.

Poulter added that the strong growth rate of CRM software revenue is driven in particular by the segments of lead management, voice of the customer and field service management, each of which is achieving more than 20 per cent growth.

Mixed reality app growth

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the total number of MR (mixed reality) applications will reach 9 billion by 2022, rising from an estimated 3 billion in 2018. MR applications display overlaid digital objects that coexist with the physical world alongside the ability to interact in real time. It found that commitment into MR from Apple, Google and Facebook, will foster content development, propelling the smartphone MR games market to reach a value of $2.3 billion by 2022. It predicted that recent framework launches from these players, combined with new developer access to Google Maps, will accelerate the development of new location-based smartphone games. Study author Sam Barker added: “MR content creators will concentrate on emulating the success of Niantic’s Pokémon Go. With these framework releases, app developers have the tools needed to create the next big MR mobile application.”