Open Source expanding into hardware? What’s the business model?
March 6, 2009
The more relevant question is probably: what took them so long?
Open source has been growing steadily in the software world (FireFox is now seriously challenging the old Microsoft Internet Explorer market leadership), and it was probably only a matter of time before there would be a spill over into other technologies.
Examples of this movement start to become noticed and reported upon in mainstream media (e.g. in the Guardian).
Some examples are open source in car design (the light car open source and the “OScar” or Open Source car), in mobile phones and their software, and in circuits.
While it is clear that the Open Source ideal is gaining traction, it is not quite so clear which business models will apply to each of these developments.
For hardware, the cost of copying is obviously more important than for software, and demanding a premium for innovation (through the monopoly granted by Intellectual Property Rights) has been a very successful business model. While the open source idea would challenge this model in a similar way as it has done for software, it remains an open question whether it can be as successful.
Typically, business models around open source have to focus on other ways of making money than through selling the innovation per se (since it is shared, under certain conditions).
So the really interesting question coming from all this is not whether the open source model can work (of course it can), but whether it will be successful, and whether it will encourage or discourage faster innovation.
It will depend on the way the management of the Intellectual Property Rights is integrated into the business model.
Watch this space!
