According to the latest report on the PCB market, which can be purchased from Gary Smith at www.garysmitheda.com, Zuken was the second largest supplier of PCB design tools in the world, surpassed only by Mentor graphics. According to the report Zuken had 23% of the total $435.5 million market in 2009.

Although Zuken enjoys market leadership position in Japan, the majority of the growth in the market has occurred in Europe and the United States. What is remarkable is that the PCB design market is not growing by much, and in fact it shrank considerably between 2008 and 2009 due to the recession.

Zuken's growth represents decisions by users to switch from the tool they were using to the CR-5000 product. Switching tools is neither easy nor cheap, especially when one considers the training costs. Yet, when asked about the success of CR-5000 to replace existing products, Zuken points out that in their experience designers have found that moving from Board Station to CR-5000 takes no more effort than to transition to the Expedition PCB product line.