India is clearly booming. Here in Bangalore, wherever one turns there are new firms setting up shop and demand for software engineers is high. I’m quite pleased to witness the dramatic rise of the Indian software engineer in the world market. However, I do have some worries.

What am I worried about?
India is definitely a software services major. Indian IT majors are now crossing the $1 billion revenue mark and momentum appears to be building. This has created significant demand for software engineers. Cost advantages coupled with abundant talent and strong project management expertise is distinguishing India from other sources.

While the software services market may be growing and India could take a higher market share in software services, I’d like to see us attempt a more broad-based growth opportunity. And one market that comes to mind is software products.

The worldwide software product market is over $180 billion today and growing. India currently has a minuscule market share in this segment. India’s core value proposition of abundant talent and low cost could be a significantly disruptive force in this industry segment as well. However, there remain some development areas that India must focus on if it wants to be successful in this segment similar to how it was in the software services segment.

What is the Opportunity?