Application software may consist of a single program, such as a Microsoft’s notepad or MacOS’sTextEdit for writing and editing simple text.

It may also consist of a collection of programs, often called a software package, which work together to accomplish a particular task, such as an office suite package.

In information technology, application software is a computer program designed to help people perform an activity.

An application software is more difficult to understand than system software. 

An application software differs from an operating system (which runs a computer), a utility (which performs maintenance or general-purpose chores), and a programming tool (with which computer programs are created).