The commercial Linux market in China has seen sales value increase 22.6 per
cent over the past year, according to new research.
However, the market remains small in revenue terms, with sales of just $5.42m
in the first three months of 2008, China-based CCID Consulting reported.
Advertisement
"Servers are still the major application for the Linux market," CCID analysts
noted in a recent report.
"The depth and width of application network servers, high performance
computing servers and database servers keeps expanding. Linux has acquired more
approval from government, finance, telecoms and post services."
As manufacturers broaden their distribution channels, Linux is expanding out
of its traditional markets around major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.
The open source operating system is now seeing more uptake in second- and
third-tier cities and in poorer regions such as western China, according to
CCID.
Servers are still the major application for the Linux market
CCID Consulting
Linux is also more commonly found preloaded on desktop PCs than in the past.
Pressure from Microsoft and US copyright lobbyists has driven major vendors,
such as Lenovo, to include Windows with all PCs sold in China.
However, smaller vendors are selling PCs with Linux preinstalled to cut total
system costs, as a Windows licence may add tens of dollars to the price.
With wide access to pirated copies of Windows in China, it is quite common
for buyers and staff at small computer stores to replace Linux with a pirated
copy of Windows when these PCs are sold.
CCID also said that it is seeing strong growth in the market for customised
and mobile versions of Linux in China.
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article