Amazon makes the popular Kindle e-book reader.
Finland's Rovio, which makes the popular Angry Birds smartphone game, recently raised $42m.
Riverside Publishing, owned by Houghton Mifflin, makes the popular Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
Kraft, an American firm that makes the popular Oreo cookie, has done best, capturing 17% of the market.
R.I.M., which makes the popular BlackBerry devices, has had a traditional stronghold in sales to American companies.
It is deepening its ties with Google, which makes the popular Android software for mobile devices, and with handset makers like Motorola Mobility, HTC and Samsung.
It makes the popular Xbox 360, but that device sustained years of losses and manufacturing problems before it became a success.
IRobot, which also makes the popular Roomba vacuum, has delivered over 3,800 PackBots, primarily to the government and military, according to Tim Trainer, an iRobot vice president.
By comparison, Electronic Arts, which makes the popular Madden N.F.L. video game series, has a market value of $6.9 billion, putting its price at roughly two times sales.
Now it exists in strange liminal zone between software developer (it still makes the popular Dota 2 game), online store and hardware pioneer.
