This essay by Ray Lane of Kleiner Perkins offers some useful models of the software industry that could easily apply to similar industries in a state of major transition.

This year, many software companies will be busy trying to convert their offerings from products into services. In fact, I would estimate that last year, software-as-a-service (SaaS) was the number one item on the agenda of 70 percent of software executives.

I’m here to tell you that this is a mistake.

…The enterprise software companies that move to innovate and dominate today will be the most successful companies five years from now.