Symantec 2014 Annual Report Download - page 92

If we are not successful in managing these risks and challenges, or if our new products, product upgrades, and
services are not technologically competitive or do not achieve market acceptance, our business and operating
results could be adversely affected.
We operate in a highly competitive environment, and our competitors may gain market share in the markets
for our products that could adversely affect our business and cause our revenues to decline.
We operate in intensely competitive markets that experience rapid technological developments, changes in industry
standards, changes in customer requirements, and frequent new product introductions and improvements. If we are
unable to anticipate or react to these competitive challenges or if existing or new competitors gain market share in
any of our markets, our competitive position could weaken and we could experience a decline in our sales that could
adversely affect our business and operating results. To compete successfully, we must maintain an innovative
research and development effort to develop new products and services and enhance existing products and services,
effectively adapt to changes in the technology or product rights held by our competitors, appropriately respond to
competitive strategies, and effectively adapt to technological changes and changes in the ways that our information
is accessed, used, and stored within our enterprise and consumer markets. If we are unsuccessful in responding to
our competitors or to changing technological and customer demands, our competitive position and our financial
results could be adversely affected.
Our competitors include software vendors that offer software products that directly compete with our product
offerings. In addition to competing with these vendors directly for sales to end-users of our products, we compete
with them for the opportunity to have our products bundled with the product offerings of our strategic partners
such as computer hardware OEMs and ISPs. Our competitors could gain market share from us if any of these
strategic partners replace our products with the products of our competitors or if these partners more actively
promote our competitors’ products than our products. In addition, software vendors who have bundled our
products with theirs may choose to bundle their software with their own or other vendors’ software or may limit
our access to standard product interfaces and inhibit our ability to develop products for their platform. In the
future, further product development by these vendors could cause our software applications and services to
become redundant, which could significantly impact our sales and financial results.
We face growing competition from network equipment, computer hardware manufacturers, large operating
system providers and other technology companies. These firms are increasingly developing and incorporating
into their products data protection and storage and server management software that competes at some levels
with our product offerings. Our competitive position could be adversely affected to the extent that our customers
perceive the functionality incorporated into these products as replacing the need for our products.
Security protection is also offered by some of our competitors at prices lower than our prices or, in some cases is
offered free of charge. Some companies offer the lower-priced or free security products within their computer
hardware or software products that we believe are inferior to our products and SaaS offerings. Our competitive
position could be adversely affected to the extent that our customers perceive these security products as replacing
the need for more effective, full featured products and services such as those that we provide. The expansion of
these competitive trends could have a significant negative impact on our sales and financial results by causing,
among other things, price reductions of our products, reduced profitability and loss of market share.
Many of our competitors have greater financial, technical, sales, marketing, or other resources than we do and
consequently may have the ability to influence customers to purchase their products instead of ours. Further
consolidation within our industry or other changes in the competitive environment, such as Intel Corporation’s
acquisition of McAfee, could result in larger competitors that compete with us on several levels. We also face
competition from many smaller companies that specialize in particular segments of the markets in which we compete.
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