Mirroring Dataquest Inc’s end-of-year US report, Twickenham, Middlesex-based research organisation Wharton Information Systems Ltd’s latest investigation of the UK information technology market says that last November was the first time in several months that the MS-DOS sector generated more revenue than the Unix environment, and by a considerable margin. According to the figures, IBM UK regained the top spot in the MS-DOS and Macintosh market in terms of revenue and number of units shipped, followed closely by Compaq Computer Corp, whose dealers complain of machine shortages, particularly the portable LTE, and Amstrad Plc. Over 50% of MS-DOS-based systems shipped were equipped with Microsoft Windows – 70% of which were unbundled – while Sanyo and Sharp carved up most of the growing notebook market between them. Wharton says that, while total Unix system shipments were up, the actual number of terminals installed fell, reflecting a surge at the low end of the market. In the software market, Sage boosted its share of the accounting sector, while Dataease and Paradox were the beneficiaries of increased database shipments. Microsoft’s Project lead the project management market, and its Excel for Windows spreadsheet nudged Supercalc5 into third place for the first time in that market, though both remain some way behind Lotus 1-2-3. Word processing was again the biggest revenue earner in software, with WordPerfect now coming under pressure from Microsoft’s Word for Windows. Novell Inc picked up on a rise in networking business, with Microsoft and Sage leading the trailing pack.
