Finding growth in a maturing market : strategic implications for the software industry

This thesis explores the changes occurring in the software industry and the strategic implications thereof. The software industry has historically benefited from the rapid introduction of new platforms and applications, an increasing user base and nearly contiguous cycles of growth. However, this process may have stopped or become sufficiently protracted to shift the industry to the mature phase of its life cycle. This thesis seeks a definition of industry maturity, discusses trends in the software industry and assesses the extent to which these trends are cyclical or structural. It then analyzes the maturity of the industry in aggregate and suggests strategies for firms. Finally, it segments the industry into clusters and makes observations regarding the maturity of each cluster.