On Tuesday 28 October 2008 13:51:39 Xiaofan Chen wrote: > On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 1:36 PM, Shawn Tan wrote: > > I have always had this nagging feeling that software does not have any > > "intrinsic" value. It is merely an embodiment of some IP. Personally, I > > think that the business of selling software as a "product" will > > definitely end. > > Hmm, that is a bit extreme. Software is a big business, look at Microsoft, > Oracle, SAP. I'm not denying that software is big business and even these people are moving towards a service model. > > Software will ultimately be something that helps sell something else. For > > Ubuntu, it's selling support services. It could also help push hardware, > > like Apple does. Someone else may come up with some other novel ways. > > Some companies sell hardware to push software. The hardware > can be commodities, the software adds value to it. I'm just thinking that, for example, we'll be selling say embedded systems running some software. However, the software itself is worthless without the whole board system to run it while the board system can still be sold without the software. So, the software alone has no intrinsic value, but a well written software can differentiate our boards from that of competitors. At the very least, the board systems can be resold for scrap parts. Maybe my thinking is just a tad too traditional. d: -- with metta, Shawn Tan Aeste Works (M) Sdn Bhd - Engineering Elegance http://www.aeste.net -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist