Windows Vista to kill spyware and the anti-spyware industry?

Windows Vista will feature many security upgrades and will include Windows Defender, an anti-spyware tool. Thanks to this spyware will get under control, Gartner predicts. It won't go away but the threat will be significantly less.

Great for end-users but not so great for the dozens of anti-spyware firms:

While this may be good news for buyers of Vista, it is not for anyone who makes a living from selling anti-spyware software. The worldwide market has boomed recently, reaching $97m in revenue in 2004, up 240.4 per cent from a year earlier, according to IDC. However, companies such as Sunbelt Software and Webroot Software are in for tough times, analysts said.

Yankee Group analyst Andrew Jaquith said: "The aftermarket for Windows anti-spyware is going to dry up almost completely. Windows Defender is going to become the default anti-spyware engine, certainly for most consumers that have Vista machines."

More details over at Silicon.