IBM's (IBM) top software developing team, which has been expanded from 1800 members to 3000 members, has gathered in Beijing to attend the company's annual IBM Rational Software Development Conference 2007.

Local media cited a representative from IBM as saying that IBM's software services had accounted for 40% of the world's total market share and the company had become a real sense software service provider with the goal of having software contribute to about 50% of the company's total profits by 2020.

IBM has announced plans to follow three major directions of continuing om development with a minimum of US$1 billion investment each year, continuing acquisitions and raising product diversity.

Danny Sabbah, general manager of IBM Rational Software, was a featured speaker during the event.