On the importance of (third-party) developers
Read this insightful article on the role of external developers for Apple’s iPod success.
It touches some really important points in business model innovation, design and development, e.g. the role of the business ecosystem, opening up for complementors, releasing APIs and documentation. Well, it’s all about encouraging external innovation to increase overall value … and it is based in structural / organizational innovation.
Ironically though that Apple, once the master of “keeping it inside”, finally has understood the virtues of openness and employs it to the max.
