It was born in a different era, when free mobile apps proliferate through word of mouth, not crapware PC installations by computer makers and ads for shrink-wrapped software.

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That was after the IRS had printed 2006 tax forms, and shrink-wrapped commercial tax prep software had already been shipped.

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The clever bit (and forgive me - it's hard not to make this sound like a plug) is wrapped up in the software being worked on by a team of about 70.

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Yes, that is a combination of software and services wrapped in terrific, tactile, slick form factors.

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Software makers get all wrapped up in sexy new features and functions and hundreds of ways of doing the exact same thing that they seem to forget the most fundamental use of their products: most business software applications are systems built around databases.

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The company's engineers are confident that their modified chip-design software will allow previously flat circuits to be wrapped around the surface of a sphere.

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Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division, said in an interview with Forbes that he thinks that within 10 years, the bulk of Office users will buy the software via a subscription, rather in the traditional shrink-wrapped format.

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Like Salesforce.com , RightNow aimed to sell its customer relationship management (CRM) software as a low-maintenance, Web-based service, not a shrink-wrapped product.

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