From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry

Starting in the 1950s, the software industry has become the 4th largest industrial sector of the U.S. economy. In the beginning, a handful of software contractors produced specialized programs for the few existing machines. The industry grew to include producers of corp. software packages & then makers of mass-market products & recreational software. This book focuses on the products they developed, the business models they followed, & the markets they served. Corrects the popular misconception that one firm is at the center of the software universe. Also tells the story of lucrative software products such as IBM¿s CICS & SAP¿s R/3, which, though little known to the general public, lie at the heart of today¿s information infrastructure.Martin Campbell-Kelly is the author of 'From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry', published 2003 under ISBN 9781422391761 and ISBN 1422391760.