This IDC study examines the worldwide third-generation language (3GL) tools market for the period from 2003 to 2005. Worldwide market size is provided for 2005, with trends from 2004. A vendor competitive analysis, with revenue and market shares of the leading vendors, is provided for 2005. This study also discusses key market drivers going forward and identifies the characteristics that vendors will need to be successful in the future.

"Worldwide 3GL tools market revenue declined in 2005, as did the revenue of market leaders such as IBM and Borland," said Steve McClure, research VP, Application Development Software, at IDC. "This market is subject to several important drivers, but its performance in 2005 clearly shows the impact of open source software, and specifically the Eclipse framework, on the market for Java and other 3GL IDEs."