Retail software
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Retail software is computer software sold to end consumers, usually under restricted licenses. Until the emergence of the Internet, retail software represented, until the 2000s, the vast majority of all end consumer software used and was referred to as shrinkware because software almost always ships in a shrinkwrapped box. An important historical event that led to the expansion of the market for retail software was the Open Letter to Hobbyists by Bill Gates in 1976.
The most famous examples of retail software are the products offered on the IBM PC and clones in the 1980s and 90s, including famous programs like Lotus 123, Word Perfect and the various parts that make up Microsoft Office. Microsoft Windows is also shrinkware, but is most often pre-installed on the computer.
The rise of the Internet and software licensing schemes has dramatically changed the retail software market. Users are capable of finding shareware, freeware and free software products as easily as retail. Producers of proprietary software have shifted to providing much of their software and services via the Internet, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Apple Computer.
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