System and method for effectively providing software to client devices in an electronic network

Abstract

A system and method for effectively supporting software distribution in an electronic network includes a software server and a network of client devices. The software server stores software items received from a software provider. The software items include various types of trial software that is provided to device users for temporary evaluation and potential purchase. A recommendation engine of the software server creates recommendation lists to identify optimal candidates from among the stored software items for performing an automatic and transparent software download procedures. The recommendation engine creates the recommendation lists by analyzing selectable software-ranking criteria related to device users of the client devices. The software server then downloads the optimal candidates from the stored software items to respective target devices during the software download procedures.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.