The top five vendors including Symantec, Trend Micro, McAfee, EMC, and IBM, held nearly half of the market at 47.8 percent, said Gartner. The combined top five vendors' market share is gradually falling in favor of smaller players, a sign that security remains a dynamic market where smaller players, new entrants and specialist vendors rise to become an effective challenge to the established leaders, Gartner noted.

Symantec continued to be the market leader, accounting for 22 percent of security software revenue in Asia Pacific in 2008, said Gartner. However, the company's market share was down from 2007 when it accounted for 22.8 percent of the market, the research firm added.

McAfee experienced the strongest growth rate among the top five vendors, as its revenue increased 30.1 percent in 2008, said the analyst firm, adding that local players from China exhibited the highest levels of growth in 2008. Other fast-growing vendors in the region included McAfee and Cisco, according to Gartner.

Emerging markets in Asia Pacific are expected to provide the highest growth opportunities over the coming years, although the more mature markets are expected to provide sustainable levels of investment, said Gartner.