Integrated Software Applications, Research Paper Example

Software applications, or plainly applications are today’s innovation stimulator for the progress of computer capabilities. Applications are the sense for computer development because they are the end projects which provide a computer user the service that he or she requires. The inventions and development of computers over the years would have been pointless with lack in demand for new software. Computer programmers all over the world had used computers for a variety of different needs, whether it was for entertainment, word and mathematic processing or even processing web information. Over the past years of the personal computers existence, consumers have created a highly profitable market for applications software. Bright minds compete in the chase for creating the next best thing that will succeed in earning the consumer’s attention and will provide substantial profits. In addition, consumers are in search of the most efficient software technologies, which will provide time and effort saving services which ever their needs may be. Other then that, innovative programming companies met with application software piracy and hacking, which created a new market for theft and crime. However, the benefits of application software are endless depending on the original tasks a user wants to achieve. Without them, the computer as we know it today would have been a noticeable super powerful calculator. The Benefits can be plainly achieved by succeeding to perform a specific task; whether it is supposed to be software for the use of enterprises, enterprise and consumer infrastructure, educational, media development, content access, product engineering, or simulation purposes. Thereby the benefits depend on their efficiency and levels of costumer satisfaction. Other then that, the benefits of application software depend on their future prospects, for example, the profits that they bring, thus, the benefits towards the economy.

It would be necessary to remark the computer science terminology of application software in order to understand completely the meaning and purpose of the term. Computer science determines application software as a type of computer program, created for the purpose of helping computer users perform needed activities. Thereby application software significantly differs from the operating system, from a utility, and from a programming language, which functions to run the computer, performs general-purpose chores or in other words maintenance, and as a mean of creating computer programs correspondingly. The application can manipulate numbers, text, graphics or the combination of the mentioned depending on the activity the application was designed for. Some application packages may include a variety of different softwares; such as those that offer a considerable amount of computing power by focusing on a single specific task, and those that include several applications yet offer less computing power called integrated software. Amother definition which had excluded in computer science is User-written software, a type of software which tailors systems to meet the specific needs of its user. This type of software has been excluded because it makes application software possible for the individual user; by including word processor macros, spreadsheet templates, graphics and animation scripts, and scientific simulations. Email filters may also be referred to as a type of user software; thus, the importance of user software is often overlooked even by their creators. Amid all of this there exists a controversy over the term of application software and its delineation with the operating systems term. Such controversies were even viewed in law cases concerning the Internet Explorer and the Linux kernel.

The benefits of applications can be judged by the existing classifications of the original purposes application software have for its users. Software applications often are provided by vendors, which specialize in this specific field; such as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Abbyy and others. Such vendors sometimes provide application suites in order to satisfy the consumers better and in order to succeed in attaining customer loyalty to a group of products, for example, the Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org and the iWork group together spreadsheets and word processors. The rest of the software applications orientate on certain needs a user has, depending on the user himself. For example, enterprise software addresses the needs of the data flow and processes in an organization. Such types of applications are beneficial because they are orientated on the work of a wide range of employees who have a certain spectre of processes. These applications can be department-orientated, for example, for the needs of sales departments and audit departments. Among the beneficial application softwares that we use every day are communicative softwares such as email, instant messenger, voice and video transmitting programs. Even the modern computer infrastructure of databases, networks, and security management applications benefit computer users. We benefit from content access software; this kind of software makes it possible to consume digital entertainment and published digital content of a huge variety of tastes, whether it is a wide range of video games, usage of media players or web browsers. Modern education has to thank applications, as well. Educational software provides educators as well as students with the newest student evaluation and collaborative study technologies, with the use of a PC. Applications made it possible for easier media development. Individuals can generate electronic media for the consumption of others; such software include Desktop Publishing software, HTML editors, Graphic Art software, Digital Audio and Video composition, Digital Animation editors, Multimedia Development software and others.

When people were given the opportunity to manage their hardware and software individually, they began to experiment and individually create personal applications. This led to considerable strides in enhancement, thereby a few-years-old computer became incapable to process the newest application. Popular applications became highly profitable, so innovative vendors and application software engineers made their products payment requiring. Afterwards, maintenance after such applications also required a fee, thus the software application market was created. Large corporations had to deal with serious losses in order to maintain and license every computer application on every computer in the company, which led to the creation of model of entrepreneurship of Software as a Service (SaaS). This type “service on demand” created new firms that were hired to deal with specific operational functions of businesses, such as document management, invoicing, financials, computerized billings, content management, human resource management, and service desk management. SaaS benefitted by helping to save money from not purchasing servers or software, improved flexibility, and multi-tenant efficiency for businesses. Therefore, businesses were able to focus their budgets in the competitive advantages rather than the corporate infrastructure, and software supply turned into a monthly obligatory fee rather than a direct capital cost.

The continuous innovation of software applications improve and broaden the versatility of computer usage. It is becoming much easier than before to develop and make use of a computer starting from HTML editing and finishing with graphics developing by not even knowing a computer programming language. Creative people have no limits in creating something new and publishing it on the web for other use. This field of science has proven to highly profitable with the growing role of a PC in everyday life. It opened the dangers of application privacy and even hacking, but even such problems led to the creation of corresponding applications such as antivirus/antitheft safety management and hack preventing technologies. People had already made millions on successful applications, and there are still no limits for innovations.

Works Cited

Biddeck, Michael, “Why You Need A SaaS Strategy”. Informationweek.com. Jan. 16, 2010. July 24, 2010 <http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/saas/showArticle.jhtml?   articleID=222301002>.

Ceruzzi, Paul E. “A History of Modern Computing”. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press (1998).

Engelhardt, Sebastian. “The Economic Properties of Software”, Jena Economic Research Papers. Volume 2 (2008), Number 2008-045.