For those who are interested, here are some more links with data and
insights about database marketing:

http://www.softsummit.com/library/presentations/2004/McKinsey_KBerryma
n.ppt

This one shows that the enterprise software world has changed in the
last 10..15 years. Sales cycles have become even longer, deal sizes
have shrunk and margins are evaporating. The small guys are squeezed,
unless they are in a specific niche or have a modern business model.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/9/b/09bb6510-535a-4fe6-be02-
8af8762b0acc/SQL316.ppt
http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/partner/events/presentation
s/downloads/2006-01-17/sql_build.ppt

Here it shows that MS is gunning for Oracle in a big way.

MS confirms the installed base estimates I posted: about 1 mln for
Oracle and DB2 each and about 3 mln for SQLServer, including MSDE (a
good 1 mln for 'real' SQLServer deployments).

(Note: the unit sales share figures are for 2005 and are in
thousands, not millions)

It also shows that a large portion of the market is still at the
Oracle8 and/or SQLServer2000 functionality level. MS is trying to get
these people to migrate by pushing an integrated stack (BI tools,
linkage/lock-in to DevStudio)

There is a dutch saying "if two dogs fight over a bone, a third one
will walk away with it". Firebird should be able to progress quite
nicely :^)

Paul