Visual Basic 6.0 Developers: Lost in Migration?; Overall Visual Basic Use in EMEA Declines by 25% Since 2003, New Evans Data Survey

Business Wire, Nov 15, 2004

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- According to Evans Data Corporation's new Fall 2004 EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Development Survey, Visual Basic use in EMEA as a whole has lost 25% of its developer base since 2003. VB.Net has shown consistent growth from 16% of EMEA developers using since Evans Data started measuring it in Fall 2002 to 32% today but about half of developers who once used VB6 or earlier are not migrating to VB.Net.

Contrasting the findings from EMEA with developers in North America, Evans Data found that North American developers use VB6 or earlier more than VB.Net, 45% to 34% respectively, and 54% of North American developers use some form of Visual Basic, compared to 43% in EMEA.

"One of the main issues keeping VB6 and earlier developers from making the migration to VB.Net is the steepness of the learning curve. The difficulty in moving existing VB6 apps to VB.Net is, in some cases, insurmountable," said Albion Butters, Evans Data's international analyst.

Other findings from the October 2004 survey of more than 400 developers working in EMEA:

--EMEA developers are split on upgrading their Windows XP to Service Pack 2: a quarter did so within the first month, but 37% are holding off until they have more information. The tradeoff for increased security is the tedious process of installation and potential software conflicts. (http://www.evansdata.com/cgi/relocate.php?key=EMEA2004_2_1)

--Linux is expected to pick up market share in embedded applications with 22% expecting to write more embedded Linux applications in the next year.

--EMEA developers differ markedly from their North American counterparts on the subject of outsourcing. In EMEA, a third of developers believe that outsourcing is good for business and nothing should be done to curb it. In North America, only 13% of developers thought outsourcing was good for business and 33% felt that government intervention was the best way to stop outsourcing. (http://www.evansdata.com/cgi/relocate.php?key=EMEA2004_2_2)

About Evans Data Corporation

Evans Data Corporation (www.evansdata.com) provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans' syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.