Fall in use of pirated software in Singapore

SINGAPORE — The use of pirated software in the Republic has gradually fallen over the years as rising tablet and smartphone penetration rates here outpace the growth of PCs, a survey by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has shown.

The survey report released yesterday showed unlicensed software usage fell to 32 per cent from 33 per cent in 2011, 35 per cent in 2009 and 37 per cent in 2007.

Speaking at a media conference, Mr Victor Lim, vice-president of custom research and consulting at IDC, said the fall was due to government effort and rising tablet and smartphone penetration rates. Generally, the use of pirated software has been tied to PC usage.

“There has been an increased use of cloud computing services, smartphones and tablets. PC sales are still growing, but growth in smartphones and tablets has been much faster,” he said. “Over the past few years, Singapore also has had very positive government initiatives, with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore expanding consumer awareness.”

IDC said 1.07 million PCs were shipped to Singapore last year, down from 1.5 million in 2011. In comparison, 3.42 million smartphones and 1.27 million tablets were shipped last year. In 2011, 3.82 million smartphones and about 660,000 tablets were shipped to Singapore.

This is in line with international trends. Last year, 315 million PCs were shipped, down from the 364 million units in 2011, while shipments of tablets surged.

However, piracy is still a problem in emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific, where PC sales remain strong. In the region, as much as 62 per cent of software usage last year was found to be unlicensed, the highest rate of unlicensed software use in the world. In comparison, North America had the lowest rate, at 19 per cent.

The survey is conducted every other year. This year, computer users in 34 markets were polled, including nearly 22,000 consumer and enterprise PC users and more than 2,000 IT managers.

Among the security risks associated with unlicensed software, 64 per cent of users cited unauthorised access by hackers as a top concern and 59 per cent stated loss of data.

This is amid a worsening global security threat environment, with more than 75 per cent of organisations suffering a security incident in the past two years, said the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Mr Roland Chan, BSA senior director of compliance programmes for Asia-Pacific, said: “There is a disturbing disconnect between awareness of the danger of unlicensed software usage and actual steps taken to address the problem.”

“Users realise that unlicensed software can introduce malware and leave them vulnerable to hacker intrusion and data loss. Yet, many fail to do anything to protect themselves or their organisations.”