shareware
...e anything from the right to use it, to a printed manual, to updated versions. Because the overhead cost of this distribution method is low, generally the cost of software distributed in this manner is less expensive. Market Potential Dataquest estimates the global market for software to enable e-commerce at $869 million in 1999 and forecasts that the market will surge to $4.2 billion by 2002. Dataquest breaks the market for enabling software in three categories; business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and web-based EDI (electronic data interchange). According to this segmentation, in 1999, business-to-consumer software represented the largest segment, accounting for almost half of the worldwide market at $409 million. The business-to-business and the Web-based EDI segments account for $263 and $196 million respectively. In the next three years, sales of soft...