Synergy Research上周三發布的數據顯示，托去年262億美元收購LinkedIn之福，微軟鞏固了自己最大訂閱軟件供應商的地位。

Synergy表示，二十多年前開創“軟件服務”（也就是SaaS）的Salesforce仍是該領域的第二大供應商。在這個模式下，公司通過互聯網傳輸的數據使用軟件，而不是在自己的服務器上獨立運行軟件。去年，微軟首次超過Salesforce，在該領域占據榜首。

Synergy并未發布公司的收入增長，不過分析師約翰·丁斯代爾表示，微軟占有了超過15%的企業市場，而Salesforce占有了超過10%。阿多比、甲骨文和SAP的市場占有率都在5%至10%之間。

總體來看，這類軟件的整體年度銷售額同比增加了31%，達到150億美元。

Salesforce和更晚進入市場的公司如Workday和SuccessFactors都采用了每個用戶每月付費的模式，而早期的運營商如阿多比、微軟、甲骨文和SAP不得不迅速跟進，因為消費者更喜歡這種新的軟件購買（或者說租賃）方式。所以，越來越多的商業客戶如今談論的都是微軟的Office 365，而不是Microsoft Office。這也是為何SAP收購了Concur和SuccessFactors，而甲骨文也收購了NetSuite、Taleo和其他一些公司，從而在這種訂閱軟件市場更好地站穩腳跟。

微軟和Salesforce的這種趨勢值得一提，因為兩大軟件公司長期以來都亦敵亦友：例如，他們在銷售軟件上展開競爭，卻又在將微軟Outlook整合到Salesforce產品的過程中攜手合作。

然而，微軟去年成功收購LinkedIn，又揭開了兩家公司之間的舊傷疤。Salesforce一直在尋求并購LinkedIn，但他們的出價卻被微軟超過。公司的首席執行官馬克·貝尼奧夫隨后公開抱怨稱微軟-LinkedIn的組合有損公平競爭。（財富中文網）

譯者：嚴匡正

Microsoft, aided by its $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn last year, has fortified its lead as the biggest provider of subscription software, according to numbers released Wednesday by Synergy Research.

Salesforce (crm), which pioneered the "Software-as-a-Service" (a.k.a. SaaS) market more than 20 years ago, remains the second largest player, Synergy said. Under the SaaS model, businesses use software that streams over the Internet rather than running it independently on their own servers. Microsoft first passed Salesforce on this list last year.

Synergy does not release revenue growth by company, but analyst John Dinsdale did say that Microsoft (msft) holds more than 15% of the total enterprise market while Salesforce accounts for more than 10%. Adobe (adbe), Oracle, and SAP each fall in the 5% to 10% range, Synergy said

In aggregate, total sales of this type of software rose 31% year over year to $15 billion.

Companies like Salesforce and more recent entries like Workday (wday) or SuccessFactors were born to this pay-per-user-per month model while older vendors like Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP (sap) had to adapt quickly as customers embraced the new way of buying (or renting) software. Hence most business customers now talk about Office 365 from Microsoft rather than Microsoft Office. And it's also why SAP (sap) bought Concur and SuccessFactors while Oracle bought NetSuite, Taleo, and other companies to gain a stronger foothold in this subscription software market.

The Microsoft-Salesforce dynamic is worth noting because the two software powers have long been frenemies: They compete in sales software but also work together to integrate Microsoft Outlook with Salesforce products, for example.

Microsoft's successful purchase of LinkedIn last year, however, opened up old wounds. Salesforce had been pursuing LinkedIn but was outbid for it. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff subsequently complained publicly that the Microsoft-LinkedIn combination hurts competition.