The volume of software market worldwide is set to reach $4 billion by 2012, up from $2.25 billion in 2010 and $3 billion expected by end of 2011. A study about iTune shows that each new account on iTunes download and upload 62 various program along with other applications, despite the fact that the software application sale online is widespread only during the last three years.
The soaring competition among software application giants has increased and taken a unique marketing approach. In App Store there are more than 225 million accounts linked to Visa cards registered worldwide. This software enables buyers to download and reach more than 225 million shoppers worldwide and display his merchandise and products in the same program, a figure that cannot be available in the largest global marketing gatherings.
“The rules of investment game have changed in conjunction with the rapid development in information technology and communication, and geographical and political borders that separate customers and clients have disappeared. This requires us to change our mentality about the method of business and investment management,” Omar Al Juraifani, the Economic and Financial Analyst, said.
“A national professional expert in I Phone or similar applications will generate a huge cash flow to the nation and will boost the national economy. We are not talking about simple amount of money, but about the potential opportunities for employee and businessman, alike. Our merchants must adopt the training of a group of young male and female nationals on developing such software. In return the merchant will be a partner in production for a certain period of time to get the best result,” he added.
The IT sector has emerged robustly since the beginning of the last decade, attracted the attention and outshined the other major industries. The sector has expanded in the light of the huge interest shown by the local, GCC and regional communities. A simple study of the volume of this market showed that App Store sell $200 million transaction a month, and $2.4 billion a year, a figure that is near the Kingdom budget allocated for infrastructure in 2010.
Badir Program for Technology Incubators, an initiative created by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, has recently held a workshop on investment opportunities in manufacturing and information technology sectors. A number of models were studied, including one model introduced by one of the participants who developed a simple program with a notebook and a password. The number of versions that were downloaded and uploaded was 22000 within a span of five days. This opens the door wide for such rewarding investment, as the sale figure is not possible for the largest software store to achieve during the same period.