Anti-Virus Program The Most Widely Downloaded This Year

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition was the most widely downloaded software in 2010 according to CNET. It was downloaded over 83 million times at CNET.com last year.

It is odd that free PC security software would be more popular than products from industry leaders like McAfee and Symantec. They are, at least in the eyes  of most PC protection experts, the state of the art products.

Any analysis that takes a complete look at the PC protection business knows that antivirus software, like most other software, may be affordable to consumers in developed nations. But the real growth in computer use in in places like China and other large nations in the developing and third world. It is hard to come by the money to pay for a Norton protection program. There is particularly true when one that is considered adequate is available at no cost.

The AVG download numbers show a trend that is one of the great enemies of companies which make effective and paid software. The better the free products get, the more pressure it puts on paid ones. Free software is often built by legions of programmers who communicate via e-mail and message boards. It may not make sense to large commercial enterprises but not everyone who builds a service does so for money.

As proof of the competition that free software like AVG poses, the product get an extremely high ratings from CNET. It is higher, in fact, than that of a number of the more well-regarded paid programs.

The democratization of the internet had become more and more frequently the enemy of premium content which includes both news and entertainment, and premium tools. The AVG data shows just how far the evolution of the world wide web has come

Douglas A. McIntyre