Product Description

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 specialised 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 centre 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 judgements, this book will become a starting point for all future investigations of this fundamental component of computer history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #395994 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 388 pages

Review
"History may provide no sure guide to the future, but it does offer context and insight for the present. And, given the proper twist, history glimmers with a certain knowing humor. In his incisive, panoramic book, From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog, Martin Campbell-Kelly delivers all three - context, insight, even occasional humor." - Steve Lohr, The New York Times; "Compelling reading.... From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog should command a wide audience: participants in the industry, both programmers and managers, students of economics and business, and the interested general public." - Danny Yee, Slashdot; "A well-rounded look at the software industry from a business perspective." - Library Journal; "A good read." - New Scientist"

Customer Reviews

Insightful!
From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog may sound like a mystifying title, but this book provides a reasonable overview of the history of the software industry. At times, given the ups and downs in the industry, it can’t avoid sounding like a catalog of defunct firms and obsolete software. However, this chronology is quite useful for anyone who wants to come up to speed very quickly and very generally on the main trends in the industry. Author Martin Campbell-Kelly covers some of the industry’s seminal events and the main categories of software. Vexingly or refreshingly, he takes pains to say as little about Microsoft as possible, making it clear that others have written enough on that subject. So, with that absence duly noted, we recommend this book to those who want an inside history of the software industry, from massive mainframes to little blue cartoon porcupines.

Interesting but 5 years out of date?
Whilst history itself doesn't change (although, of course, interpretations of it do) and is still interesting, I was a little disappointed that this book really only went up to the year 2000, despite a hardback publishing date of 2003 and the paperback date of 2004.

As such, I think it missed the key events of the early 2000's which have been a wake up call to the software industry.

Nonetheless, the lack of focus on Microsoft and the attention given to the likes of SAP were a welcome change from some of the other more recent computing history books. The scope from of the book (as the title suggests) from mainframe software to games also gives it some breadth missing elsewhere.

I have to say, however, that my favourite book in this area (and mentioned here) is 'Accidental Empires' which is written with great humour and not a little cynicism!

So, overall, worth reading if this is an area of interest to you but perhaps a little too academic for someone with only a casual interest in the topic.

Good review of the US Software Industry
A very comprehensive history of the Software Industry - but from the US perspective. Given that it was written by a Briton, based at a UK University, and funded by a UK Government grant, I did find it surprisingly 'light' on the UK Pioneers, whether it be at Cambridge, Manchester or Lyons.

If you ignore this 'lack' of a truly panoramic view, you do get a very good review of the last 50 years, and the rise & fall of the mainframe, minicomputer and microcomputer, and the software that they ran.

I liked the reproduction of the various advertising campaigns, but thought that use of a statistician would have produced some more interesting tables. Persistence in tabulating all amounts with all the 6 zeroes rather than simply denominating charts in 'millions' in the first place seems quite inefficient.