استراتژی های فناوری و رقابت استاندارد، مقایسه نوآوری های Apple و Microsoft

This paper analyses the technology strategy and standard competition of the most outstanding innovation cases of Apple and Microsoft. The objective of the study is to understand innovators' pursuit of strategies in securing the benefits from an innovation, based on the innovation life cycle model. The study develops a new methodological framework of platform for analysing the case studies. It is argued that the ability to establish an industry standard and lock-in customers enables an innovator to create a competitive advantage. The study offers important lessons in strategic innovation management.

Competition to achieve competitive advantage often involves the ability to establish new standards for the interworking of products and services. The outstanding classic cases of standard battle are Sony Betamax and Matsushita VHS standards in the Videocassette Recorder (VCR) business, the standard competition among the powerful players of Visa Open Platform, MasterCard/Mondex Multos, Proton World's Proton, Microsoft Windows for Smart Cards in the smart card industry and the recent standard competition between HD-DVD and Blu Ray in the Digital Versatile Disc player (DVD) business. This study endeavours to understand the use of technology strategies and competition to establish technology standards in the most outstanding innovative companies of Apple and Microsoft. The comparative case study analyses using the new methodological framework of platform aim to contribute to the area of innovation management. Following the introductory section, Section 2 presents the literature review on innovation, innovation process, five forces Porter's approach, technology standards and platform and strategies in managing technological innovations. Section 3 introduces the new methodology for analysing the technology platform creation process. Section 4 analyses of the process of technological change in various industrial sectors in an attempt to provide a basis for better understanding the technological change of Apple and Microsoft, based on the innovation life cycle model. Section 5 analyses the technology strategies of Apple and Microsoft for achieving competitive advantage. Section 6 discusses the generalisable principles/abstract ideas synthesised from the case study analysis. Section 7 concludes the paper by drawing lessons in strategic innovation management from the findings and suggests avenues for future research.

This paper revisits the cases of Apple and Microsoft to analyse the technology strategy and standard competition. The study attempts to understand innovators' pursuit of strategies in securing the benefits from an innovation, based on the innovation life cycle model. From analysing the process of technology platform creation, a new methodological framework for the case study analyses, the results have shown that the innovators' use of strategies is consistent with the potential of platform creation. The following implications appear to be important in managing innovations. The ability to establish the innovator's own technology as standard provides a route to competitive advantage. This is because standards can help create network externality effect through compatibility. Also, standards help tie in the customers since standards allow the creation of a base of compatible users, making it difficult for any competitors to capture on an individual or niche basis. For example, by owning the delivery channels through PC manufacturers, Microsoft effectively captured PC customers. The analysis has shown that the capability to own the customers can be seen as strategically important since it serves as a base enabling the innovator to offer further innovations. The ability to control the delivery channels as well as the customers enabled Microsoft to create a business platform and enjoy a continuing advantage. The study has shown that technology platform emerges from a combination of strategies. The study suggests that the platform needs to be consistently upgraded/renewed to maintain a platform advantage. Microsoft consistently improves its technology platform and business platform by purchasing/acquiring software firms whose software applications could be bundled into the Windows operating system. Apple transferred the lessons learnt from the Lisa project to the Mac development projects to launch smaller, faster and much less expensive computers. Apple used the knowledge learnt from the earlier Mac projects to build the product champions (reconceptualising the personal computer and transforming it into new iPad tablet computer — Apple iPad). It could be argued that technology could render competitive advantage to innovators. However, over time, the technology platform in competition tends to be open to allow plug-in of various applications which would create increased value to customers. At present, it is interesting to see Apple's step into the new standard competition in an attempt to lock-in E ink innovation through its technological platform in the operating system market and brand strength. However, it would be empirically observable in the long run to see the results of standard competition (standard competition among Apple iPad tablet, Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader).