"The platform is the market" was the key message from one of the recent articles from Harvard Business Publishing . This was a very interesting perspective from somebody who studies business models day in / day out.
The definition of a market is a place where a buyer and a seller can exchange goods and/or services on mutually agreeable terms. Markets grow as more and more people can enter the market, quickly discover the best person/team to transact with and exchange goods/ services for a fair price. Any control on who can enter the market on what terms will ofcourse mean that it is no longer a fair market and people may go elsewhere.
Translating this in terms of a software platform, it means that the more open a platform is in allowing people to participate, higher the adoption of the platform. I am working with a company that is keen on locking down a platform, to "protect its IP" and to ensure that they can exclusively develop on this platform.
As Bill Joy famously said "innovation happens elsewhere", the risk ofcourse is that the cost of maintaining the platform will fall on the company and it will not benefit from breakthrough ideas elsewhere.
I have a strong suspicion that as software keeps getting commoditized, the cost of maintaining proprietary platforms will seem even more expensive to the organization. Also, as more development happens on more open platforms, this so called "IP" will disappear.
The definition of a market is a place where a buyer and a seller can exchange goods and/or services on mutually agreeable terms. Markets grow as more and more people can enter the market, quickly discover the best person/team to transact with and exchange goods/ services for a fair price. Any control on who can enter the market on what terms will ofcourse mean that it is no longer a fair market and people may go elsewhere.
Translating this in terms of a software platform, it means that the more open a platform is in allowing people to participate, higher the adoption of the platform. I am working with a company that is keen on locking down a platform, to "protect its IP" and to ensure that they can exclusively develop on this platform.
As Bill Joy famously said "innovation happens elsewhere", the risk ofcourse is that the cost of maintaining the platform will fall on the company and it will not benefit from breakthrough ideas elsewhere.
I have a strong suspicion that as software keeps getting commoditized, the cost of maintaining proprietary platforms will seem even more expensive to the organization. Also, as more development happens on more open platforms, this so called "IP" will disappear.
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