Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
“This is precisely how the Arduino team works. It makes little off the sale of each
board—only a few dollars of the $35 price, which gets rolled into the next produc-
tion cycle. But the serious income comes from clients who want to build devices
based on the board and who hire the founders as consultants.
“What's more, the growing Arduino community performs free labor for the con-
sultants. Clients of Banzi's design firm often want him to create Arduino-powered
products. For example, one client wanted to control LED arrays. Poking around
online, Banzi found that someone in France had already published Arduino code
that did the job. Banzi took the code and was done.” ( Wired magazine 16.11,
October 20, 2008, “Build It, Share It, Profit” by Clive Thompson on the first three
years of Arduino)
Hardware on Request
If your products are not made for an assembly line, you might be able to make your money
from individual development, customizations, or adaptations addressing individual needs,
cases, or scenarios. An example is the installation of a sophisticated irrigation system.
Makethingsspecialforindividualcustomers,suchas“aspirintailoredtoyourDNA”(Kev-
in Kelly 2 ) , an example of a truly enabling product. Can you imagine selling unique proto-
types like art or making the first copies worth more than later ones? This model produces
hardware on request, although it might also seem close to “selling the service.” Using or
creating open source hardware for individual solutions allows you to make the advantages
of open source work for your product or service and your customer. Imagine a marketing
campaign based on this capability: customers buy your expertise for the product created.
2 . http://kk.org/thetechnium/2008/01/better-than-fre/
Support
There are two ways to make money from support. First, the business model may focus
on selling support to install, repair, or be on call for hardware. This support model has
been successful in the open source software business world; a notable example is RedHat.
For some software, you need professional help to install it and run it. Some open source
hardware might potentially use the same model; that is, you need professionals to oper-
ate, maintain, upgrade, or sometimes repair the hardware. “The copy of code, being mere
bits, is free—and becomes valuable to you only through the support and guidance” (Kevin
Kell y 3 ) . Consider offering a support or service deal. If you're a small start-up, the fact that
you're a co-developer of the hardware might make it easier for clients to trust you owing
to your expertise.
3 . http://kk.org/thetechnium/2008/01/better-than-fre/
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