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A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app), in the jargon of computer programmers and video gamers, has come to mean any program, particularly a minor one, that is ingeniously coded or unexpectedly useful. Originally, and more broadly, "killer app" has been used to refer to any computer program that is so necessary or desirable that it provides the core value of some larger technology, such as a gaming console, software, operating system, or piece of computer hardware. In this sense, a killer app substantially increases sales of the hardware that supports it.

Spreadsheets

Enlarge picture
VisiCalc, the earliest generally agreed example of a killer application.


One of the first examples of a killer application is generally agreed to be the VisiCalc spreadsheet on the Apple II platform (e.g.[1]). The machine was purchased in the thousands by finance workers (in particular, bond traders) on the strength of this one program. The next example is another spreadsheet, Lotus 1-2-3. Sales of IBM's PC had been slow until 1-2-3 was made public; the IBM became the best-selling computer only a few months after Lotus 1-2-3's initial release.

A killer app can provide an important niche market for a non-mainstream platform. Aldus PageMaker and Adobe PostScript gave the graphic design and desktop publishing niche to the Apple Macintosh in the late 1980s, a niche it retains to this day despite the fact that PCs running Windows have been capable of running versions of the same applications since the early 1990s.

Trends

There have been a number of new uses of the term. For instance the usefulness of e-mail drew many people to use computer networks, while the Mosaic web browser is generally credited with the popularization of the World Wide Web and hence the Internet. The term has also been applied to computer and video games that cause consumers to buy a particular video game console or gaming hardware. Nintendo 64 saw much success with the releases of Super Mario 64 and . The Game Boy saw Tetris, and following Game Boy iterations saw the highly successful Pokémon series. Software developers of new platforms now tend to focus considerable effort and funds into discovering or creating the next "killer app" for a given technology.

Selected applications for computer systems

See also

References

1. ^ D.J. Power, A Brief History of Spreadsheets, DSSResources.COM, v3.6, 8 August 2004

Further reading

A computer program is one or more instructions that are intended for execution by a computer. Specifically, it is a symbol or combination of symbols forming an algorithm that may or may not terminate, and that algorithm is written in a programming language.
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video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or electronic device that manipulates the video display signal of a display device (a television, monitor, etc.) to display a game.
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Computer software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that perform some task on a computer system. [1]
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An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. An operating system processes system data and user input, and responds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the
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Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware. The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed, in comparison with software and data, which are "soft" in the
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VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. It is considered[Who?] to be the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool.
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spreadsheet is a rectangular table (or grid) of information, often financial information. The word came from "spread" in its sense of a newspaper or magazine item (text and/or graphics) that covers two facing pages, extending across the center fold and treating the two pages as one
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Apple II (sometimes written as Apple ][ or Apple //) was the first popular microcomputer manufactured by Apple. Its direct ancestor was the Apple I, a limited production circuit board computer for electronics hobbyists which pioneered many features that made the Apple
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bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and is obliged to repay the principal and interest (the coupon) at a later date, termed maturity.
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Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (now part of IBM). It was the IBM PC's first killer application; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of IBM PC in the corporate environment.
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International Business Machines Corporation

Public (NYSE:  IBM )
Founded 1889, incorporated 1911
Headquarters Armonk, New York, USA

Key people Samuel J.
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personal computer (PC) is a computer whose original sales price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals.

It is unknown who coined the phrase with the intent of a small affordable computing device but John W.
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Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (now part of IBM). It was the IBM PC's first killer application; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of IBM PC in the corporate environment.
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A niche market also known as a target market is a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector.

By definition, then, a business that focuses on a niche market is addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers.
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For the typeface, see .


Aldus Corporation (named after the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius) was the inventor of the groundbreaking PageMaker software for the Apple Macintosh, a program that is generally credited with creating the
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PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation[1], initially for the Apple Macintosh but soon after also for the PC. It relies on Adobe Systems' PostScript page description language.
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Adobe Systems Incorporated

Public (NASDAQ: ADBE )
Founded San Jose (1982)
Headquarters San Jose, California, U.S.

Key people Charles Geschke, Founder
John Warnock, Founder
Bruce Chizen, CEO
Shantanu Narayen, Pres.
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For the page description language, see .


A postscript (from post scriptum, a Latin expression meaning "after writing" and abbreviated P.S.
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* It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.

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Desktop publishing (also known as DTP) combines a personal computer and page layout software to create publication documents on a computer for either large scale publishing or small scale local economical multifunction peripheral output and distribution.
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Macintosh, commonly known as Mac, is a brand name which covers several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. Named after the McIntosh variety of apple, the original Macintosh was released on January 24, 1984.
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worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.


This article may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references.

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IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC, XT, or AT internal design,
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Microsoft Windows

Screenshot of Windows Vista Ultimate, the latest version of Microsoft Windows.
Company/developer: Microsoft Corporation
OS family: MS-DOS/9x-based, Windows CE, Windows NT
Source model: Closed source

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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

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For the band, see .

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E-mail (short for electronic mail; often also abbreviated as e-mail, email or simply mail) is a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems.
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as a college campus, industrial complex, or a military base. A CAN, may be considered a type of MAN (metropolitan area network), but is generally limited to an area that is smaller than a typical MAN.
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This article relates to the browser produced by NCSA. For the browser that was renamed Netscape Navigator, see that article.

Mosaic

Mosaic 3.
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World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, a user views web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigates between them using hyperlinks.
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Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government
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