Application Software
What Is Application Software ?
The application software is a computer program designed to offer a specific functionality to the user. The application software are developed by the software companies to provide a specific solution to the user.
Application software provides a specific functionality to the user. These software provide a user friendly interface to the user to operate the computer for the intended purpose.
The computer system consist of both software and hardware components. The computer system needs both system software and application software.
The system software is used by the system itself to communicate with the hardware components. Whereas, the application software is used by the user to communicate with the system.
Application Software Video Tutorial
As the name suggest , the application software are developed for the specific application such as writing documents , emails , creating presentations , watching movies and managing accounts.
large number of application programs are developed by the software industry for business applications such as customer management , inventory management or other such applications.
In this article , you will learn what is application software , different types of apps used for various applications and how these programs are developed.
Application Software Explained
Table Of Contents
What Is Application Software ?
The application software are essential component of every computer system. The application software are also commonly referred to as application programs ,or apps or simply an app.
The computer system is used for many purposes. The user may use the computer for writing email or document , browsing the internet , watching movies , editing video , maintaining accounts , playing games or for any other purpose.
The computer system needs different types of application software to perform different jobs on the system. For example , MS Word is used for creating documents.
Application Software Architecture
The web applications is another important category of application software that can be accessed through internet.
The user can access the web applications through internet and any browser program such as Google Chrome , Microsoft Edge or safari.
Each application programs provides a specific functionality to the user. And therefore , some apps may be preinstalled in the computer system . But the user can always install any software as per the intended use of the system.
For example , if the user intends to use the computer for composing music then the sound recording and editing software will be required. Likewise, if the user is an accountant , then accounting software is required.
Difference Between Application Software And System Software ?
Both application software and the system software are essential for the computer system to function. Each of these software is used by the system for different purpose.
The system software is used by the computer itself to control and communicate with the various hardware components connected to the computer system .
The operating system itself is a type of system software that internally make use of another set of system software programs to manage and drive the system hardware components.
Whereas, the application programs are developed to provide the specific service to the user. Depending upon the user requirements, various application software ( programs ) are required to be installed in the system.
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Types Of Application Software
The application software can be broadly be grouped into two main categories . The first category is general purpose application software and the second category is custom made software.
On the basis of platforms and the technology used , the application software can be developed as desktop application , mobile application , web application and the latest cloud based software applications
General Purpose Application Software
The general purpose application software are developed to serve some of the most commonly used applications.
These applications include software used for writing emails , documents , music players for listening to the music and media players for watching the movies.
Since , these apps are developed to address the requirements of large number of people , these apps are relatively much cheaper as compared to custom made software.
General Purpose Application Software
For example , one of the most commonly used general purpose software include Microsoft Office which include MS Word , MS Power Point , MS Excel and MS Access for database applications.
Custom Software Application
As the name suggest , the custom software are developed keeping in mind the requirements for specific user. Most software development companies work on the assignments to develop a custom software.
For example , a business corporation might assign work to the software company to develop a software application tailor made for their requirements. Developing a custom software is relatively very expensive.
The custom made software is generally designed and developed for a large organizations to help them manage the business operations spread across different locations.
And therefore such application software are web applications based on the client server architecture.
Desktop Software Application
The desktop software applications are developed for the personal computer users such as desktops and laptops.
These application programs are developed for specific platforms. And for this reason , we need to specify the operating system while downloading and installing any software application.
For example , a software developed for the Windows platform needs to be installed on the computer with windows operating system.
Mobile Software Application
Mobile Apps
The mobile software applications are developed for the mobile device users such as smart phones and other hand held mobile devices.
The android apps are developed for the mobile devices and will need a mobile device with an android operating system. Similarly , apps for apple mobile devices will run on iOS operating system.
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Web Applications
Web Application Software
A server is another computer which responds to these requests and provide the data which is presented to the user by the client. A web server can function as service provider using a server stack which includes a server operating system.
The web applications are hosted on the web server and can be accessed using any computer or mobile device. The online banking service provided by the banks is an example of the web application.
How Web Application Works ?
A web application is a computer program that can be accessed through a web browsers on any computing device .
The web applications are based on the client server architecture and developed using web technologies. The web applications offer many advantages as compared to other types of software.
In client server architecture , a client is a computer ( a browser program ) that sends the requests for the data using http protocol. A client is also referred as service receiver.
Client Server Architecture
A server is another computer which responds to these requests and provide the data which is presented to the user by the client. A web server can function as service provider using a server stack which includes a server operating system.
The web applications are hosted on the web server and can be accessed using any computer or mobile device. The online banking service provided by the banks is an example of the web application.
Cloud Applications
Cloud-Based Application Software
The cloud-based software applications work on the cloud computing technology. The cloud-based applications can be accessed by the user that are remotely hosted and run on the shared computing resources.
The application software that works on the cloud computer architecture are often referred to as “Software As Service” or abbreviated as SaaS.
The cloud-based software offers some major advantages as compared to web server-based software or the desktop applications.
The cloud-based software is cheaper since they are charged on the monthly subscription charges. Whereas, most general-purpose software is sold on one-time total charges.
The software applications that are based on the cloud computing architecture are hosted on the multiple servers maintained by the remote data centers.
Application Software FAQ
The application software is a computer program specially designed and develop to provide a specific functionality to the user.
Different types of application software are developed by the software companies keeping in mind a specific requirement of the user.
The main function of the application software is to provide an interface and specific functionality to the user.
For example , Microsoft words is used to create and edit the word documents. Similarly, the video editing software is used to edit the video.
The four main types of application software include
- General Purpose Software.
- Custom Made Software.
- Desktop Applications.
- Mobile Applications.
- Web Applications.
- Cloud Based Applications.
The most common examples of the application software include :
- Internet Explorer And Google Chrome – Web browsers.
- Microsoft PowerPoint – Presentation software.
- Microsoft Excel – Spreadsheet software.
- Paint – Graphic software.
- MS Word – Word processors.
- MySQL – Database software.
- Multimedia software.
- Education software.
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