So who is kicking butt in security?

You would be surprised to learn that the household names you know and trust in the security space are not exactly growing like gangbusters in Canada and the U.S.

According to research firm the NPD Group, Symantec and McAfee grew collectively at just under eight per cent in North American retail (sales unit volume) last year.

So if Symantec and McAfee units increased by just 250,000 what other security vendors gained in popularity among the masses?

Does the performance of Kaspersky, Webroot and Trend Micro mean the top two security vendors are in peril of losing market share? It’s an interesting question, but you have to factor in that these are retail figures and while growth is growth and everyone will take the success you have to understand that the North American consumer is fickle at best.

Loyalty is not their strong suit. What they buy today; might not be what they buy tomorrow. Price is a big factor as well. I checked online and all the security players are competitively priced so they are all doing their homework and no one is getting caught off-guard in terms of pricing.

Usually retail sales translates well into SMB sales for software vendors where customers are more stable and long term.

The only danger I see in these figures is that the consumer is not distinguishing on brand. The thought has always been out there that all the major security products do the same job and that you should only buy on price. I don’t think that’s accurate, but I know end users think that.