Mobitrends

Linksys initiated the path to an open broadband router with their WRT54G product line which was really popular amongst developers and geeks with its expansions through cool third parties firmwares. Now that Linksys have abandoned the linux kernel for thei main product line in favor of vxworks (smaller mom footprint - reduced costs), newcomers are trying to jump in that market and benefit from the developer base to promote their own hardware - in a few days Martin, Fon’s CEO, has announced that la Fonera 2, its broadband router with USB port, will be launched along with a community site to promote third party applications, same today at Netgear with MyOpenRouter dedicated to promote the development of software expansions to their routers.
Nothing new here only nicely marketed initiatives and some mixed feelings for me - somehow this is great, devices are opening up and leverage on an extended community to provide features that matter, but on the other side as an embedded hardware&software company, I can only regret that hardware companies feel that providing a minimal set of functions for their product to sell is enough - and that the opensource community will provide the real killer apps which will make their product a success. Just like if hardware is tangible and software isn’t. Hardware companies are ready to spend >300k€ for a nice plastic design but not for the software that can really add value to their product (and they often are less reluctant to pay for design than for good hardware too…).

Technorati Tags: embedded