Mountain View, Calif. -- A study by the Palo Alto Management Group (PAMG) indicates the market for parallel processing systems will increase at more than 40 percent annually to over $14 billion in 1999. The bulk of the market is projected to be in commercial applications such as OLTP, decision support and multimedia. "It is very likely the $20 billion mark will be surpassed early in the new century," said Michael P. Burwen, director of the study. But market size does represent the biggest challenges for parallel system vendors over the next five years. That challenge will be to figure out how to stay in the game and retain profitability. "The old-time mainframe pricing and profit models won't work in the new world of parallel computing," noted Burwen. "Nonetheless, the highly scalable nature of parallel processing systems will open up a whole new range of opportunities. For example, vendors may find that it pays to low-ball front-end prices and make it up later on expansion, or they may find it necessary to bundle system sales as just one part of a total solution." Based on vendor reports and PAMG estimates, the 1994 market share leaders were Tandem with 31 percent of the market, followed by AT&T GIS and IBM, each with 19 percent. Significant market shares were also held by Cray Research, Digital Equipment and Fujitsu. The remaining market share of 14 percent was shared by over 20 smaller vendors. "Several more companies are going to enter the parallel processing market by the end of next year. Clearly a major shakeout is in the offing," observed Burwen.
New Study Says Parallel Processing Market Will Reach $14B in 1999
October 6, 1995