Trend Adds ‘Pro’ Consumer Option

Trend Micro, seeking to capitalize on market share gains in home PC security, has released a more expensive version of its Internet Security suite in its 2008 edition.

The company has also finally dropped the badly punny PC-Cillin brand. The new catalog comprises Trend Micro Antivirus 2008, Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 and Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2008.

The Pro version is $69.95, an extra $20 on the vanilla Internet Security. Pro is designed largely for people who transact online a lot or use laptops that may roam between potentially insecure networks.

Pro features keystroke encryption, to defeat the keylogging malware often used by identity thieves, as well as PC tune-up functionality and wireless network digital signature verification.

Trend now says it is second in the consumer security market behind Symantec, with a 23.1% unit share versus Symantec’s has 37.8%, a massive leap on 2006 numbers, according to NPD Group research.

Trend’s vice president of marketing Carol Carpenter said that the improved numbers are in part due to the company’s deal with Best Buy, which sees Geek Squad technicians recommend the software to consumers.

By revenue, Trend holds a smaller slice of the pie — 14% of the market, compared to Symantec’s 56%, according to NPD.

Symantec’s Norton suite remains the pricier option. The all-singing all-dancing Norton 360 sells for $79.99, while Norton Internet Security 2008 sells for $69.99. Until now, Trend’s most expensive option was the $49.99 Internet Security suite.

Carpenter said that Trend’s approach to its 2008 line-up is subtly different to Symantec’s, which also has identity theft protection as a key upgrade. Norton 2008 has an Identity Safe feature, for example, in which users can store their online personae.

“They’ve focused more on identity management, managing passwords securely,” she said. “We’re focused more on identity protection rather than identity management.”

The non-pro version of Trend’s Internet Security has also been updated. The application behavior monitoring has been streamlined to create fewer annoying alerts, by tracing activity back to the originating application.