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From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialized programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of corporate software packages and then makers of mass-market products and recreational software. This book tells the story of each of these types of firm, focusing on the products they developed, the business models they followed, and the markets they served.
By describing the breadth of this industry, Martin Campbell-Kelly corrects the popular misconception that one firm is at the center of the software universe. He also tells the story of lucrative software products such as IBM's CICS and SAP's R/3, which, though little known to the general public, lie at the heart of today's information infrastructure.
With its wealth of industry data and its thoughtful judgments, this book will become a starting point for all future investigations of this fundamental component of computer history.
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From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog
History of Computing I. Bernard Cohen and William Aspray, editors William Aspray, John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, and Emerson W. Pugh, IBM’s Early Computers Martin Campbell-Kelly, From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog: A History of the Software Industry Paul E. Ceruzzi, A History of Modern Computing I. Bernard Cohen, Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer I. Bernard Cohen and Gregory W. Welch, editors, Makin’ Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer John Hendry, Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British Computer Industry Michael Lindgren, Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Müller, Charles Babbage, and Georg and Edvard Scheutz David E. Lundstrom, A Few Good Men from Univac René Moreau, The Computer Comes of Age: The People, the Hardware, and the Software Emerson W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology Emerson W. Pugh, Memories That Shaped an Industry Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer, IBM’s 360 and Early 370 Systems Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith, From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer Raúl Rojas and Ulf Hashagen, editors, The First Computers—History and Architectures Dorothy Stein, Ada: A Life and a Legacy John N. Vardalas, The Computer Revolution in Canada: Building National Technological Competence Maurice V. Wilkes, Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer
From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog A History of the Software Industry
Martin Campbell-Kelly
The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
© 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. Set in New Baskerville by The MIT Press. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Campbell-Kelly, Martin. From airline reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog : a history of the software industry / Martin Campbell-Kelly. p. cm. — (History of computing) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-03303-8 (hc. : alk. paper) 1. Computer software industry—History. I. Title. II. Series. HD9696.63.A2 C35 2003 338.4'70053—dc21 2002075351
Contents
Preface vii Acknowledgments
xiii
1 The Software Industry
1
2 Origins of the Software Contractor, the 1950s
29
3 Programming Services, the 1960s
57
4 Origins of the Software Product