Oracle sees brighter future through 9i

George Roberts, Oracle's executive vice president of North American sales, told the Reuters news agency: "We'll see the impact [of 9i] starting next year."

But Oracle has been subject to a series of analysts' downgrades and a falling share price as doubt grows over the company's 4th quarter results, and the slowing economy hits sales.

Other analysts, however, question how much Oracle's woes are down to problems with their own products, rather than market conditions.

Forrester Research's Andrew Parker said: "PeopleSoft just turned in pretty good figures. That seems to reflect that the right strategy is still getting traction, even in the current market."

"We have seen evidence that Oracle have been unresponsive to the needs of customers in terms of helping with the bugs that exist with the current iterations of their software," he added.

"That has caused a lot of irritation and comment within the marketplace, and if 9i addresses that then their financial situation might improve. But experience suggests that the reverse is more likely. New releases of software tend to mean more bugs, not less, across the whole of the industry."