The worldwide security software market generated $16.5 billion in revenue during 2010, up from $14.7 billion in 2009, according to recent report from Gartner.

The 12% growth comes after the market saw a sharp fall in revenues in 2009, which the report blamed on a slow economy and restricted IT budgets.

Gartner analyst Ruggero Contu said that the sector’s largest vendors had been expanded their product portfolios through acquisition."Products within the security market are undergoing rapid evolution, in terms of both new delivery models — with security as a service showing increasing popularity — and new technologies being introduced, often by startup companies," said Contu.

The growth showed variation across different sectors. Mature areas like endpoint security and Web access management showed single digit growth, while security information and secure Web gateway products expanded much faster.

Symantec dominated the market in 2010 with a share of almost 19%, although its revenue growth compared to 2009 was just 5.8%. In contrast, EMC’s revenue grew by more than a quarter over the same period, but from a smaller base, giving the company a 3.8% market share in 2010.