The Quad Cities houses 360,000 souls and straddles the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois. Its most notable tenant is Deere & Company, home of everything John Deere green.

The Quad Cities’ place in history was assured when the steamwheeler Effie Afton collided with the first bridge spanning the mile-wide river, triggering a court battle over rights-of-way between railroads and river traffic. Abraham Lincoln argued for the railroads and won.

So why am I telling you this?

To fix the market size, location and a whiff of its history in your head, so you have the proper context for the discussion.

Along those lines, you need to know that, for local software purchases, the short list and long list match: Best Buy, Officemax, Sam’s Club and Staples.

Coincidentally, those are precisely the companies we chose to review for their anti-virus offerings.

Armed with the knowledge that space management is high science to a national retailer, and that a merchant displays more of a product that she intends to sell in quantity, we simply counted package fronts of every anti-virus solution we found.

The results were surprising, if only for the lopsidedness. Norton anti-virus variations command 58% of the frontage. McAfee is way behind with 15%, followed by Trend Micro (8%), CA (7%), Zone Labs (7%) and the new kid, Windows Live OneCare (6%).

Norton’s greatest push appears to be in Staples and Best Buy, where the line commands 65% of the anti-virus display area. Sam’s Club devotes 55%, while Officemax doles out a comparatively paltry 37%.

Officemax is fairly egalitarian about the whole thing, allocating 37% of its display space to McAfee as well. Other retailers aren’t so kind. Staples gives the line 22%, Sam’s serves up 18% and Best Buy dribbles out just 6% of its space.

As for the rest, Trend Micro’s anti-virus products aren’t offered at all by the office supply retailers. CA gets no space at Sam’s, and ZoneLabs is persona non grata at both Sam’s and Staples.

Officemax doesn’t offer Windows Live OneCare, but then again, it’s only been out for a month.

That’s today’s snapshot. Tomorrow, you’ll see a much different picture.

With the advent of Windows Forefront security products for both consumers and businesses, Microsoft is offering a broad new security line at compelling prices.

In addition, Microsofties know how to play hardball with retailers… Sam’s club excepted. Don’t be surprised if, by Christmas, Forefront owns 30% - 40% of the available display space.

Norton can afford to give up some of its almost embarrassingly huge frontage. McAfee will be stung by any reductions. But if CA, Trend Micro or ZoneLabs lose any ground, they’ll be out of the retail business… at least in the Quad Cities.

On the other hand, there’s plenty of space available for Forefront, if you empty retail shelves of exclusively anti-spyware products. That may be the natural course, as most anti-virus software now includes A/S functionality, but it could be the end of Webroot as we know it.

Oh. Sam’s Club is the only shop discounting Windows Live OneCare: $32.84. The rest offer it at list: $49.95.

Why is that important?

Did I tell you about the time ole Honest Abe took out after Chief Black Hawk?

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