Linux adoption in the Philippines continues at a cautious pace, says IDC

June 29, 2005

Manila, June 29, 2005 – Compared to its Asian neighbors and counterparts, the Philippines is still in its infancy stage with regards to Linux adoption, despite increased levels of awareness in the Philippine IT landscape. Though the benefits that Linux bring have been identified, fears of application incompatibility and support-related issues, compounded by the lack of a proven track record for Linux have resulted in a low adoption rate. Many end users for example, fear that they may not be able to get sufficient software and support services on the Linux platform.

"Presently however, there is a high level of awareness in the Philippine IT landscape regarding the presence of Linux as an alternative to the more established Windows and Unix systems. IDC believes that Linux adoption in the Philippines will continue to experience slow and cautious growth as users remain wary of business-related considerations like application compatibility and post-deployment support costs," says Manuel Ravago, research manager of IDC Philippines.

Although IT managers value the presence of alternatives and choices and have grown increasingly aware of Linux in the past few years, adoption is still low because of the lack of confidence in the capabilities of Linux, particularly the workloads that it is most suited for. As a result, there is a wariness or lack of confidence in the level of support that will be needed once adoption takes place. This difficulty is heightened by the limited reseller ecosystem of Linux, as compared to that of Windows.

To boost the level of adoption and strengthen the Linux market in the country, IDC advises vendors to increase further the level of awareness by employing more aggressive sales and marketing campaigns and implement more comprehensive product bundling schemes.

Looking forward, IDC expects that Windows will continue to dominate the OS landscape through 2009 with regard to the installed-base and software revenue. Likewise, in a country dominated by SMEs with limited IT budgets, and with IT spending focused primarily on hardware spending, the impetus for an alternative OS is likely not a priority. Moreover, the perceived lack of business applications compatible with Linux will continue to hinder widespread adoption.

IDC's latest research, Philippines Linux Adoption: Has the Penguin Arrived? provides an overview of Linux in the Philippine OS (client and server OS) software market and presents a broad overview of market conditions, including Linux OS' market share.

For more information about purchasing the research, please contact Hazmi at +603-2169-7526 or hyusof@idc.com. For press enquiries, please contact Stephen Chong at +603-2169-7521 or ckchong@idc.com.

Contact

Chong Chee Kian
Events & Marketing Executive
Tel: +603-2169-7521
Fax : +603-2163-5098
Email:ckchong@idc.com