Software Industry Profile

INDUSTRY PROFILE

The software industry is one of the largest and most influential industries in the world today. The industry originated with the entrepreneurial computer software and services companies of the 1950s and 1960s, grew dramatically through the 1970s and 1980s to become a market force rivaling that of the computer hardware companies, and by the 1990s had become the supplier of technical know-how that transformed the way people worked, played and communicated every day of their lives.

The software industry was born once people realized that they could use the same program on several computers, though sometimes after adapting it for a specific customer's needs.

The software industry, today one of the leading engines of economic growth, grew slowly in the second half of the 20th century. It is only natural that this growth accompanied the rise in importance of the computer itself. When only expensive mainframe computers were sold, the nascent industry took its first steps, and as computers shrank in size and cost, the sales of software increased in line with the ubiquity of computers.

But one cannot really talk of a software "industry" as such until the birth of the personal computer in the 1980s. Software companies grew like mushrooms in the forest as users bought computers for home and business use, and needed something to do with them. First balancing their checkbooks, then writing letters and playing games, the home computer user drove the growth and innovation of this market, while the business user clamored for better and faster tools to help manage their business.

COMPANY PROFILE

Conexant Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CNXT) is a publicly listed US SEMICONDUTOR company, which was formerly the semiconductor division of Rockwell international

Conexant Systems Inc.

Type Public (NASDAQ:CNXT)

Founded January 1999

Headquarters NEWPORT BEACH,CALIFORNIA

UNITED STATES

Key people Scott Mercer, CEO

Industry Semiconductors

Revenue $0.97 billion USD (▼ $122.59M FY 2006)

Employees 3,120 (2006)

Website www.conexant.com

HISTORY:

Conexant is the remnants of what were the Brooktree Corporation, the Hi-Media broadband communications chipset business of the Com stream corporation and the Rockwell's semiconductors