Software industry

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The '''software industry''' includes businesses involved in the [[software development|development]], [[software maintenance|maintenance]] and [[software publisher|publication]] of [[computer software]] using any business model. The industry also includes software [[Service (economics)|service]]s, such as [[training]], [[software documentation|documentation]], and [[consultancy|consulting]].

The largest and most profitable of software companies are located in the [[United States]]. As of 2008, the client software industry is dominated by [[Microsoft]]{{Fact|date=March 2008}}. [[Software Magazine]]'s 500 list in 2005 shows the total amount of revenue brought in by software companies per locale, with the highest being [[California]] due to [[Silicon Valley]] and the number of [[Fortune 500]] software companies residing in that area. <ref>[http://www.softwaremag.com/SW500/index.cfm?StartRow=1&RowsPer=50&BusCat_Search=&PrimBus_Search=&PrimBusCat_Search=&RankSort=ASC&CompSort=&trk=n&id=5 Software Magazine 500] (2005)</ref>

== Overview ==
There are several types of businesses in the software industry. The largest and most profitable publish horizontal [[proprietary software]] such as [[Microsoft]], [[SAP]], [[Oracle]], and [[Adobe]]. Others develop vertical-market software intended for a particular sector or niche in the economy such as finance, health care, insurance, retail, automotive manufacturing, and so on. A great deal of specialized software is produced for various niches. Other companies do contract programming to develop unique software for one particular client company, or focus on configuring and customizing suites from large vendors such as SAP or Oracle. And a few companies publish or support [[open source software]].

Developing proprietary software involves [[software licensing]] and the need to protect the software from [[Software cracking|cracking]] and [[Software piracy|piracy]].

== History ==
The software industry started in the early 1960s when universities and businesses first began to use computers and to seek out programs to do certain computing tasks. Many of these programs were written in-house by full-time staff programmers. Some were distributed freely between users of a particular machine for no charge. But others were done on a commercial basis, and the very first standalone software firms started in the United States in 1959-1960.

The industry expanded greatly with the rise of the personal computer in the mid-1970s, which created a growing market for games, applications, and utilities. And gradually the concept that software should be bought and paid for took hold. One of the earliest proponents of this view was [[Bill Gates]], founder of [[Microsoft]].

In the early years of the 21st century, another successful business model has arisen for hosted software, called software as a service, or [[SaaS]]; this was at least the third time this model had been attempted. SaaS reduces the concerns about software piracy, since it can only be accessed through the Web, and by definition no client software is loaded onto the end user's PC.

== Size of the industry ==
[[Software Magazine]]s' ''Software 500 survey'' can be used to gauge the value of the commercial software industry. The ''Software 500 survey'' consists of data from the largest 500 public and private software companies, as ranked by [[Software Magazine]]. Total worldwide revenues in 2007 for companies in the ''Software 500'' list were $451.8 billion, up 14.7% from 2006, when total Software 500 revenue was $394 billion.<ref>[http://www.softwaremag.com/L.cfm?Doc=1175-10/2008 Software Magazine - 2008 Software 500: Innovation Alive and Well</ref>

== Open source software ==
Ironically, the financial return on open source software comes from selling services, such as training and support, rather than the software itself.

Much of the Internet runs on open source software tools and utilities such as [[Linux]], [[Apache HTTP Server|Apache]], [[MySQL]], and [[PHP]], known as the LAMP stack for web servers. Using open source appeals to software developers for three main reasons: low or no cost, access to [[source code]] they can tailor themselves, and a shared community that ensures a generally robust code base, with quick fixes for any new issues that surface.

Despite doing much business in proprietary software, some companies like [[Sun Microsystems]] and [[IBM]] participate in developing free and open source software to deter from [[monopoly|monopolies]] and take a portion of [[market share]] for themselves. [[Netscape]]'s actions are an example of this, and thus [[Firefox]] has become more popular, stealing market share from Internet Explorer.<ref>[[Netscape_Navigator#Fall_of_Netscape]]</ref> But in general, it remains difficult to base a successful business on the open source model.

== See also ==
Radixweb
* [[Professional open-source| Professional Open Source Business Model]]
* [[Computer software]]
* [[Software development]]
* [[Software publisher]]
* [[Software engineering]]
* [[World's largest software companies]]
* [[China Software Industry Association]] (CSIA)

== References ==
<div class="references-small"><references/></div>

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary}}
* [http://www.siia.net/ Software and Information Industry Association website]
* [http://www.softwareceo.com/ SoftwareCEO] the largest online community of software executives in the world
* [http://www.softwaremag.com/ Software Magazine website]
* [http://www.siprofessionals.org/ Software Industry Professionals website]
* [http://www.sao.org/ Software Association of Oregon website]
* [http://software.computerdictionaries.org/ Software Terms] A collection of software dictionaries

[[Category:Industries]]
[[Category:Software industry|*]]

[[ar:صناعة البرمجيات]]
[[es:Industria del software]]
[[th:ซอฟต์แวร์เชิงพาณิชย์]]

Water

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==Resources==
* [[Wikipedia:Water]]
* [[Wikipedia:Category:Water supply and sanitation by country]]
* [[Wikipedia:Water (molecule)]]
* [[Wikipedia:Ice]]
* [[Wikipedia:Water management]]
* [[Wikipedia:Drinking water]]
* [[Wikipedia:Water quality]]
* [[Wikipedia:Water resources]]
* [[Wikipedia:Water Permits]]

==See also==
* [[School:Hydrology]]
* [[School:Chemistry]]
* [[School:Meteorology]]
* [[Topic:Oceanography]]
* [[Physical properties of the oceans]]
* [[Lunar Boom Town/Water plant]]
* [[Liquid water on Europa]]

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Software industry

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