FirstClass now in top five

In the April 3, 1995 issue of EMMS, SoftArc is credited with over three million users of its award-winning product FirstClass and a 10.1 percent market share. The April 5, 1995 issue of Electronic Messaging News also reports SoftArc now has more than three million FirstClass users, compared to the Company's 1.4 million count six months ago. FirstClass has at least tripled its user base each of the four years it has been available.

Based on data published in EMMS, SoftArc also posted the largest growth in the number of LAN e-mailboxes for any of the top vendors over the last 15 months (December 1993 through March 1995), with a 500 percent increase in the number of FirstClass users. (Microsoft Mail is a distant second, with an installed mailbox growth rate of 155 percent. Click on the attached LAN Mailboxes Worldwide graphic to view online.) Electronic Messaging News' survey, which covers the last six months (October 1994 through March 1995), also found that SoftArc posted the largest e-mailbox growth for any of the top vendors, with a 114 percent increase.

Microsoft Mail             7,000,000       23.6%

Lotus cc:Mail              6,500,000       21.9%

Novell GroupWise           3,500,000       11.8%

SoftArc FirstClass         3,000,000       10.1%

On Technology Da Vinci     2,300,000        7.7%

CE Software QuickMail      1,700,000        5.7%

Lotus Notes                1,350,000        4.5%

Other                      4,360,000       14.6%

"Being recognized as one of the top five e-mail vendors is particularly gratifying, because our numbers are truly substantiated," stated Steven Asbury, president of SoftArc. "Unlike several of our competitors, we've actually sold our three million licenses - not given them away in office suite products, or counted them from acquisitions. FirstClass is penetrating the LAN e-mail and groupware markets three times faster than our nearest competitor, on the strength of our client/server mail technology."

According to Eric Arnum, editor of EMMS, "Novell continues to dogfight with Da Vinci eMail and SoftArc¹s FirstClass for third place [in the worldwide LAN e-mail market]. Novell has it now, but Da Vinci is selling a hot new release and FirstClass continues to win contracts all over."

EMMS reports that there are now at least 61.5 million electronic mailboxes in use worldwide, of which some 86 percent are on private systems and 14 percent are on public network services. LAN e-mail continues to lead host-based e-mail.