Platforms create vendor-lock-ins, i.e., the ecosystem is dependent on the platform owner. Wars ("platform wars") are fought about platforms. Platforms can create enourmous large ecosystems with millions of "complementors".
If Germany wants to have success in IT, it should look at this business model.
- Summary on the MIT Alumni Home Page of Cusumano
- Slide Set of Cusumano
- Karl Michael Popp, Ralf Meyer. Profit from Software Ecosystems. Synomic GmbH, 2010.
- Jan Bosch. From Software Product Lines to Software Ecosystems. Software Product Line Conference (SPLC) 2009. Strategic paper on which Software Ecosystems develop on which software platforms
- New book of Jan Bosch: http://www.janbosch.com/books.html
Examples for ecosystems on monolithical platforms owned by a single company
- Apple and Google appstores - well, everybody knows
- Atlassian ecosystem (Jira, Confluence etc.)
Examples for ecosystems on consortial platforms owned by several players
These ecosystems are more stable because if a platform owner dies, the platform still has a chance to survive:
- Eclipse, a layered ecosystem
- AutoSAR, an ecosystem for control software for cars
- Genivi, an ecosystem for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI)
Additional Literature
- Annabelle Gawer, Michael A. Cusumano. Platform leadership. How Intel, Microsoft and Cisco drive industry innovation. Harvard Business School Press
- Michael A. Cusumano. Staying power. Six enduring principles for managing strategy and innovation in an uncertain world. Oxford University Press.
- Slinger Jansen, Anthony Finkelstein, Sjaak Brinkkemper. A Sense of Community: A Research Agenda for Software Ecosystems. IEEE ICSE Companion, 2009.
- Software Ecosystems. David G. Messerschmitt, Clemens Szyperski. MIT Press
