Some general ASP info - might give you an idea of potential:
ASP easy as 123,
Over and over, like a mantra, the term "ASP," or, more colorfully, "apps-on-tap," is being uttered by Internet prognosticators. ASP stands for application service provider, which refers to a company that rents out computer software via the Internet. Early products include human-resources applications like payroll-processing software and Sun Microsystems' (SUNW) StarOffice suite, which includes word processing, spreadsheets and calendars. Renting the software saves customers cash upfront, and it also takes the burden off their own hardware and tech staffs. The downside is that they suffer outages when their providers do.
Demand in this industry is already exploding, with big business leading the way. Worldwide ASP-services revenue is projected to rise 25-fold from $889 million in 1998 to $22.7 billion in five years, according to research firm Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Group. The potential has startups and venture capitalists foaming at the mouth. In fact, ASPs could be the largest category of companies going public over the next six to 12 months, predicts J.P. Morgan's Le-Ellen Spellman, vice president of U.S. equity research.
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smartmoney.com
Officials at IBM and Novell hope to foster the development of a vibrant application service provider (ASP) market through separate initiatives designed to promote integration across multiple applications. |
