However, for now, in this highly competitive industry, organic growth from new products is still the primary driver of performance and company valuation. Essentially separating into two distinct markets, business and consumer, there are a number of companies that currently provide software products across the spectrum. In the business sphere, the main players are firms like Oracle and SAP that focus on enterprise management, data warehousing, CRM, HR and supply-chain management. In the consumer arena, there are multiple companies ranging from the likes of EA, which is strong in gaming, through to Real Networks in media players and Dorling Kindersley in education. Amongst those working across the sector, Symantec, Adobe and Corel all have their niche and Microsoft is naturally involved in many areas.
ONES WE ARE WATCHING |
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Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com isn’t a conventional software company: its model isn't about selling licenses but is based on a per user, per month charge. Focused on delivering on-demand business applications related to sales and customer relationship management, through supplying business computing as a set of simple services, the ability to disrupt the sector is clear. As companies grow by using software purchased over the grid rather than being specifically owned, they and their employees are able to control the processing of information directly, without the need for large IT support teams.
Adobe
Adobe, the pervasive digital imaging and document company, has been around for over 25 years now and has been busy building on its Photoshop / Acrobat heritage. Adobe Flash was recognised as a pivotal application in bringing animation and motion to the first decade of websites and has now developed to become the way in which video for the web has become easy to create and consume. More recently the release of Adobe AIR is spurring the next wave of innovation, bridging the dynamic capabilities of the web with the computing power of
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