According to the market research company's Retail Tracking Service, total consumer retail software sales (excluding games) increased 1% in 2010 to $2.42 billion. The growth comes after two years of 8% and 10% declines in 2008 and 2009.
Microsoft, which launched its Office 2010 suite last year, led publishers, accounting for more than one-third of all retail sales. Intuit, Apple, Adobe and Symantec followed, and the five companies accounted for 78% of the total sales, according to NPD.