

For Hardware Makers, Sharing Their Secrets Is Now Part of the Business Plan - carlchenet
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/open-sourcing-cars-and-computers

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zxcvvcxz
Yes, this is in the best interests of those creating platforms: help other
people get their business on your platform. The incentives make sense. More
internet means more people on facebook means more ad revenue from Zimbabwe or
where ever they haven't penetrated yet. More electric cars means more charging
at the Tesla stations. Just think incentives, and a lot of seemingly baffling
business moves "they just gave away their secrets!!" start to make a lot of
sense.

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userbinator
I wonder if this could be the result of some influence from (or competition
with) the Chinese - whose companies have been well known to be "unofficially
open" as a way to encourage more business:
[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297)

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venomsnake
Just common strategy to commoditize everything else but them.

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jkestner
Exactly. They may be hardware makers, but they aren't hardware companies. IBM
sells services, so it's just an inversion of the usual free customer service
when you buy a product. Open sourcing some servers just lowers costs for
Facebook and keeps some engineers happy.

