In a recent post I discussed Oracle's market share in BI, based on a press-published chart taken from IDC data - showing Oracle coming in second. As often happens in such discussions, I got quite a few direct emails and twitter messages - some in no uncertain terms - about why the particular metric I chose was not sufficiently nuanced or representative of the true picture. I freely admit: that's true. In general, market observers know Oracle is not typically placed second overall - but the picture is more complex than a single ranking. My point was, and is, that it's too easy to slip into a "who's on top" mentality that obscures true market dynamics. In this post, I'll dig a bit deeper, and describe what different approaches or categorizations show us - and what they don't. Finally I'll talk about how much this matters - and to whom.

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