With industry experts predicting a wave of consolidation across the security applications sector, the continued efforts of the IT industry’s largest players to bake more defense features into their products could accelerate the rapid shifts in the market. In others, as with Intel’s recently announced vPro line of processors, companies have sketched out plans for features that could even eliminate the need for some types of security applications in the future. While few experts say they believe those efforts, or Microsoft’s pledge to deliver a far more secure operating system with integrated security tools in its next-generation Windows Vista, will push major network defense and anti-malware software companies out of business, industry watchers say there is little doubt that the work will have a long-term impact on smaller players and the sector as a whole.