In any business, you have to have a good product to offer to be able to meet your overall objectives. The same goes for software development where you have a lot of options on what type of software you would want to develop. I suggest choosing something that you are passionate about before you even begin the design. Next is to make a quick study and development by performing market testing and prototyping. Lastly, keep what works and throw away what’s not.
If you are a corporate person who likes to deal with organizations, the best product type for you to develop is database applications like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems with modules such as accounting, procurement/purchasing, order management, manufacturing, inventory, etc. Another product type is Customer Relationship Management (CRM), a system that handles customer engagement from leads generation, monitoring, closing, and support. There are many to choose from, such as Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), payroll, front-end solutions such as point-of-sales, hospitality systems, B2B Supply-Chain Management, B2C, G2G, etc. But these types of products require a good customer service for you to be successful. Operations-wise and for your convenience, you can create something for the cloud and self-service for the customer.
Another market you should look into that is really lucrative is the mobile application development for iPhone and Android. Products heavily vary from platform apps, utilities, information systems, games, etc. One great idea can make you an instant millionaire.
When Wikipedia, social networking, and other web 2.0 concepts came forth during the millennium, a lot of innovative people have developed phenomenal products over the Internet. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are some of these; one that’s currently getting the buzz is Vero. The ideas are infinite.
All the above-mentioned are promising and will give profit with a good and sound business management. But the most important aspect here is product management. Every product becomes obsolete, therefore a good research and development and product enhancement process is critical for the software developer. You have to have some kind of product cycle methodology, from prototyping, to market testing, to development, to support, and enhancement. A software developer should keep up with the emerging tools and technology; enhance their skill set on a regular basis so the product would not meet its extinction.
There’s a lot more for you to consider:
1. Media players and entertainment
2. Office suites
3. Chat and communication
4. Development tools such as database, web server, programming language, etc.
5. Information systems
6. Games
7. Graphic tools such as photoshops, CAD
8. Operating system
9. Security and utilities
10. Reporting tools
11. AI
12. And any other category in Playstore and Appstore.