1970 to 1979: Computers and Software Begin Creating Wealth - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 131

Chapter 6. 1970 to 1979: Computers and Software
Begin Creating Wealth
Thanks to the unbundling of software by IBM in 1969, the 1970s would witness
the creation of several companies that would later expand into the largest and
wealthiest companies in U.S. history: Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle are three ex-
amples. The rapid expansion of computer use led to the very rapid expansion of
companies that created commercial software that benefited both corporations and
individuals. It was not anticipated at the beginning of this decade (and confirm)
that software would eventually cause Bill Gates to become among the wealthiest
persons on the planet and Apple Computer to become among the wealthiest com-
panies.
By the end of this decade, computers and software would be among the fastest-
growing and most profitable industries in human history. The settlement of the
patent case between Honeywell and Sperry-Rand invalidated the patent on ENIAC
and essentially put computer architecture into the public domain. During this dec-
ade, software began to diverge into a number of subcategories such as business
software, embedded software, middleware, and many others.
Software Evolution in the 1970s
The field of software engineering grew faster than almost any occupation in his-
tory during this time. The decade also witnessed the creation of many different
subfields of software such as business applications, project management applic-
ations, personal applications, systems software, embedded software, middleware,
scientific and mathematical software, communications software, manufacturing
software, database software, and software for games and entertainment.
Trends in Software
A popular trend during this decade was the emergence of vertical markets among
both computer and software vendors. A vertical market refers to selling complete
packages that support all data-processing needs for a particular business function
or industry. Banks, insurance providers, and health-care companies are good ex-
amples of target vertical markets because all three depend on complex and some-
what specialized calculations using large volumes of data.