Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
I suppose it depends on your definition of "platform"... but JVC licensed VHS technology *and* competed with licensees. I think that this is pretty comparable to what Google is trying to do, particularly as Android is (more or less) an open standard. As was VHS; Palm and Apple were not.
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And IBM? Did someone forget about the IBM PC and its various clones? Sure it started out with backwards-engineering, but later they might tons of money on licenses while also building PCs. Geez.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_compatible
And the relevant quote:
"As the market evolved, however, despite the failure of MCA, IBM derived a considerable income stream from license fees from companies who paid for licenses to use IBM patents that were in the PC design—to the extent that IBM's focus changed from discouraging PC clones to maximizing its revenue from license sales. IBM finally relinquished its role as a PC manufacturer in April 2005, when it sold its PC division to Lenovo for $1.75 billion."