The worldwide application deployment software market grew 4.4 percent in 2003 to reach over 7 billion US dollars in software revenues, IDC reported on Tuesday.

Application deployment software market includes application, Web and integration servers, and message-oriented, transaction-server and access-integration middleware.

IDC, a US high tech market research firm, said it expects this market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 4 percent through 2008.

According to IDC, the top ranking vendors for 2003 remained the same as in 2002 for the application deployment software market.

IBM, BEA and Oracle had shares of 35.6 percent, 11.5 percent, and 5.9 percent, respectively, and all three gained share when compared to 2002.

IDC projected that in 2004 the overall application deployment platform software market will grow almost 4 percent from 2003. The company said its forecast is based on interviews with over 1,200 IT managers conducted in North America in Oct. and Nov. 2003.