The implication of open innovation and open source to mobile device manufacturers

Abstract

Innovations largely contribute to a technology company's continuous survival and its competitiveness in the market place. Traditionally most companies employed closed innovation model. They kept their discoveries or inventions highly secret and made no attempt to assimilate information from outside. This model worked well until 1990s when advances in technology and society had facilitated information diffusion dramatically. Mobile industry, as one of the most rapidly changing industries, is also forced to adopt the open innovation model in various forms. Recently announced Android platform caused a big stir in the industry. The gradual shift from closeness to openness is inevitable in this industry. A good example of Open Innovation is the open source software development that has been studied extensively. This study further examines the open innovation model beyond software development, i.e. open innovation in hardware and embedded system development. Lessons are learned through case studies of software, hardware and embedded system related business practice. Recommendations are given to Mobile industry, specifically the cell phone handset industry accordingly. This study will not focus on a specific platform or the user side.