What is the difference between General purpose and customized application software?

General purpose application software[edit | edit source]

General purpose application software is a kind of application that can be used for a variety of tasks. It is not limited to one particular function. They provide large no of features for its users.For example, a word processor could be classed as general purpose software as it would allow a user to write a novel, create a restaurant menu or even make a poster.

What is the difference between General purpose and customized application software?

Examples of General purpose application software include: Word processors, Spreadsheet and Presentation software. Whatever you do, do not use brand names!

Special purpose application software[edit | edit source]

Special purpose application software is a type of software created to execute one specific task. For example, a camera application on your phone will only allow you to take and share pictures. Another example would be a chess game, it would only allow you to play chess.

What is the difference between General purpose and customized application software?

Other examples of special purpose application software are web browsers, calculators, media players, calendar programs etc. Again, make sure that you don't use brand names!

Bespoke application software[edit | edit source]

Bespoke application software is tailor made for a specific user and purpose. For example a factory may require software to run a robot to make cars, however, it is the only factory making that car in the world, so the software required would have to be specially built for the task.

Other examples might include software for the military, missile/UAV operations, software for hospitals and medical equipment, software being written inside banks and other financial institutions.

There are several things to consider before purchasing bespoke software, on the plus side:

What is the difference between General purpose and customized application software?
Software is built for and will meet your precise needs


However, you must also consider

What is the difference between General purpose and customized application software?
Software will be expensive as you have to cover all of the production costs

What is the difference between General purpose and customized application software?
It may take some time to develop the software, when special purpose software could be brought straight away

What is the difference between General purpose and customized application software?
The software is more likely to be buggy as it probably won't have thousands of clients using and testing it

Exercise: Application Software

List and describe the three types of application software:

Answer:

  • General purpose software - software that can be used for multiple purposes
  • Special purpose software - software built for a specific purpose
  • Bespoke application software - software built for a specific user and purpose

Give an example of each:

Answer:

(Don't let the examiner catch you using product names!)

  • General purpose software - word processor / presentation software / spreadsheet
  • Special purpose software - Web browser / media players / calender programs
  • Bespoke application software - car robot control software / military control software

Why might you choose to use general purpose software instead of bespoke software, why might it not be suitable?

Answer:

general purpose software is:

  • cheaper than bespoke
  • readily available, whilst bespoke may take some time to write
  • able to perform multiple tasks
  • probably less buggy

However,

  • it might not perform all the tasks needed by the user

What is the difference between general purpose application?

General purpose application software is a type of application that can be used for a variety of tasks. Custom software (also known as bespoke software or tailor-made software) is software that is specially developed for some specific organization or other user.

What is general purpose application software?

A general purpose software application is software which has been designed to solve user's common or general tasks using a computer system. Examples include word processors, spreadsheets and photo editing applications for example.

What is customization of general purpose software?

Customization of General Purpose software is the process of tailoring General purpose software and integrating it directly with other applications that the organization has in use.