The software industry is evolving from isolated vertical integration between companies to open standard horizontal integration. In the past, companies controlled proprietary software stacks from apps to operating systems. However, consumers now demand converged devices, driving collaboration between industries. The new model involves independent companies providing each layer - apps, frameworks, engines, and operating systems - resulting in greater competition but also new opportunities for online apps. While experience is important, understanding new languages is also critical to succeed in this changing industry.

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Trends
in The Software Industry

2. Business value comes from higher margin and larger scale,
which are driven by differentiation and low-cost strategies.
Higher
Margin
Differentiation
Industry Trends
$
$$$
Trap of
$
Standard
Larger
Low-cost Scale
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3. Consumers demand innovative converged devices which
creates competitions among CE, IT and TC. But it may not
be bad because the total market size is increased as well
CE CE
?
IT TC IT TC
Collaborations
Past Present via software Future
Notes
• CE: Consumer Electronics
• IT: Information Technology
• TC: TeleComm
3

4. The really disruptive challenge is that companies have
developed proprietary vertical-integrated software so long …
Company X (CE) Company Y (IT) Company Z (TC)
Apps Apps Apps
Framework Framework Framework
Engines Engines Engines
OS OS OS
4

5. … while the new converged industry is evolving to open
standard horizontal-integrated system now
Company X (CE) Company Y (IT) Company Z (TC)
App
Company Apps Apps Apps
(Angry Birds)
Framework
Company Framework Framework Framework
(QT, RoR)
Engine
Company Engines Engines Engines
(SQLite)
OS
Company OS OS OS
(Linux)
5

6. More technically, the products were isolated and therefore the
competitions were less fierce in the past
IPO IPO
IPO
IPO
IPO
IPO
IPO
IPO
Note:
• IPO: Input-Process-Output
6

7. But the new converged industry is connected inevitably,
which creates new opportunities for (online) apps but
deprecates (open) terminals
IO IO
IPO
P
IPO
P
IO
P IO
IO
Note:
• IO: Input-Output, including browser/app support
• P: Process, including raw hosting, IaaS, PaaS and SaaS
with multiple languages, databases, frameworks and libs
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8. Drawing architecture is nice. But practical experiences are
even more important !
“Talk is cheap.
Show me the code.”
“What is often mistaken for
15 year’s experience, is just
Linus Torvalds 1 year’s experience
Creator of Linux repeated 15 times.”
Common Sayings
8

9. We have to understand new languages in the new world first,
which past experiences not necessarily help
Apr Apr Apr Apr
Language
1987 1997 2007 2012
C 1 1 2 1
Java - 3 1 2
C++ 7 2 3 3
Objective-C - - 42 4
C# - - 8 5
PHP - - 4 6
(Visual)
5 4 5 7
Basic
Python - 22 7 8
JavaScript - 18 9 9
Perl - 6 6 10
Source: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html visited on 23rd Apr. 2012
9

10. http://MrSunLi.com
Trends
in The Software Industry