Modern Software Sales

The software industry has completely changed face and body in terms of both the client and manufacturer side. Whilst originally, software was custom-built for large companies and sold as package bundles with hardware, software is now delivered through cloud based solutions and is consumed by the masses.

The biggest step forward from the original software industry of the 1960's was the introductions of packaged software in the 1980's. Now instead of purchasing hardware with software bundled in, software became available through one-time purchases via physical means such as retail stores. Physical media such as floppy discs and discs meant that newly popular personal computers could be used with pre-packed one-off purchase software such as Microsoft and Lotus.

The growth of software sales outside of hardware tales lead to new concepts and approaches for software sales. One version of this was the rise of enterprise software in the 1990's. Ever expanding corporate networks and computers becoming an common place tool used in various roles meant large encompassing company deals were being struck.

Here, B2B software sales and maintenance deals skyrocketed where entire business would be licensed for by software providers. The introduction and improvement of cloud services then lead to the introduction of subscription-based software sales. The addition of clous services opened the software industry to SaaS possibilities where users did not require physical copies of the software.

Here, the subscription model also meant users could only use the software for how long they need it and also stabilised software revenue for developers.