Consumer Software

The consumer software market includes home education/edutainment products sold to homes for specific educational purposes (for either adults or children) or reference (e.g., dictionaries and encyclopedias); games and entertainment (sports, adventure/role playing, arcade/action, strategy, and family entertainment applications); and home productivity that covers the software categories of home creativity, including all help, how-to, and lifestyle applications (e.g., cookbooks); personal productivity products, including resume writers, standalone calendars, expense records, will makers, and family-tree makers; and personal finance and tax preparation programs. The following are representative vendors and products in the consumer applications software market:

• Electronic Arts (SIMS 2)
• Intuit (Quicken)
• Microsoft (Encarta)

Note: IDC does not provide detailed functional analysis of the consumer applications market but tracks related revenue to provide a holistic view of the industry because some software providers market consumer, collaboration, content, and enterprise applications as well as other types of software.