This is regardless of whether you classify the costs as R&D for the purpose of claiming a tax credit under Section 163.
I don't see anywhere saying that _any and all software development_ is considered "research or experimental". Ie., if some company pays you to build a piece of software and you hand it over when you're done, you were not engaged in research/experimental expenditures if you paid people to build said software.
Then it's your customer's R&D, and they have to amortize their payment to you. If you're doing outsourced software development for SMBs and startups, you might not be directly taxed under this rule, but your customers are, which significantly affects the market for your services.
> For purposes of this section, any amount paid or incurred in connection with the development of any software shall be treated as a research or experimental expenditure.
> (a)In general > In the case of a taxpayer’s specified research or experimental expenditures for any taxable year—
So if you are not doing "research or experimental expenditures", all of the specifications in this section do not apply to you.