11/30/13

Compatibility & Revenue - From my expericence, the soul of new machine and Shy (2001)


The regular discussion of various points in technology and management is one of the reason I enjoyed working at Citigo Vietnam. My project leader was so prominent in software industry with deep knowledge in the field. He gave me a lot of lessons in different matters: team management, career orientation, entrepreneurship, successful high tech product. Interestingly, some of our banters could only be enlightened now in the MSD class.

 
A stark example of its is the relation between compatibility. My project leader was trying to convince me that the more compatible my product is, the more profitable it is. It seemed reasonable but I was not totally understood why. This problem is once again raised when I read “The soul of new machine”. I wrote it down to better remember:
The high compatibility between computers in IBM's 360-line family "guaranteed for a long time to come IBM's continued predominance in the making of computers for profit".
·         But the understanding of the problem only comes out when the lecturer introduced some concepts in “The Economics of Network Industries(Shy, 2001). This is his propositions: Aggregate industry profit is higher when firms produce compatible components than when they produce incompatible components.
·         The firm with smaller market share under compatibility earns a higher profit under compatibility.


The idea of combinatorial innovation accounts in part for the clustering of waves of invention that appears whenever some new technology becomes successful. The ubiquity of one program can act in turn as a platform for other programs; for example the mutual complementarities between Twitter, Bit.ly, and Facebook. Much of what is termed Web 2.0 computing can be thought of as leveraging complementarities of different technologies that in turn creates clusters of innovation.

Reference


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Dublin, Ireland
I am a Master student in UCD Michael Smurfit School. With broad experience in start-up, research, software industry and sale, I am actively seeking employment in consulting industry.