...but do products have domains?

This is with reference to my previous post, Do code generators have domains?

My IT career has spanned only 4 years, and I have worked for only 2 companies during this period, with the first being a software product company and the second a software services company. Since the work in the first company was developing a code-generator, I never heard the word 'domain' being uttered all through my time there. I heard it first only in the software services co.

Very naturally, I assumed 'domain' was a word that was used only in the software services industry. "Products can never have domains!!", my brain told me. "How could they? You saw it for yourself... company 1 never uttered that word!! Company 2 keeps saying it all the time!!"

Well, that was what I believed for a long time.. but my brain, being ever active ;-), seems to constantly verify whatever it believes against the real world. And very soon, it came up with exceptions!!


Products do have domains. The first example that strikes me when you talk to me about software products would be Microsoft Word. But that's not a very good example in this context, since almost every industry uses Word. I fail to think of one industry that doesn't use Word.

A good example would actually be something like the accounting package, Tally. Tally is a software product that is probably unheard of to people in the retail industry, while accountants using Tally are probably not much aware that there is a software called RayMedi RPOS in the retail industry.

This lack of awareness is because the tools target different domains. They are marketed only to people in the industry they target. Nobody's gonna market RayMedi RPOS to a company that provides accounting services. These products cater to the needs of specific industries (domains) and the people in those industries have probably never heard of those products that fall outside their industry.

Tally and RayMedi RPOS are examples of software products. They also target only certain domains. As such, they are examples of software products that do have domains.