In this fourth report in the 2007-08 T1R Mass-Market Quarterly Series, T1R gives a timely analysis and perspective on technology trends and marketplace developments in mass-market hosting. Entitled 'Mass Market Quarterly Series: Spring 2008 Review,' the 62-page report looks at the impact of significant events in the past quarter as well as some of the noteworthy trends.

T1R analysts say the largest shift in the mass-market hosting sector is the rise of wireless and broadband access, Web-enabled mobile device, and the movement of personal and business lives to an online environment. These changes have led to an increasing demand for a wide range of online services that Web hosts are competing to deliver to their customers.

"The transformation under way has forced hosters to reconsider old concepts, explore new opportunities and change the way they traditionally do business," says Philbert Shih, senior analyst at T1R and lead author of the report. "But it has also opened the door to increased competition as the likes of Google, Microsoft and others look to target the mass market for various types of Web-based services, of which Web hosting is just one, albeit an important piece."

The report also sees Web hosts fighting over valuable market share with the continuing growth of social networks and functional hosting services. T1R analysts found that while shared and dedicated hosting have largely dominated the mass-market hosting sector in the past, new technologies such as virtualization and open computing platforms like Amazon will test their staying power.

The report covers more than 30 key public and private companies in the mass-market hosting sector, including 1&1, Amazon, Aplus.Net, eNom (Demand Media), Go Daddy, Google, Hostopia, Hostway, Microsoft, NaviSite, Network Solutions, Parallels/SWsoft, Peer 1, Pipex, Rackspace, SoftLayer, The Planet, Tucows, Verio, Web.com, and Yahoo.

In January, Tier 1 released a report that shows that the Internet infrastructure market will continue to grow rapidly through 2008.