Nikkei Electronics Asia -- May 2009

[Feature] Everybody's a Manufacturer: Era of User-Generated Devices (3)

Continued from Everybody's a Manufacturer: Era of User-Generated Devices (2)

Barriers to UGDs Falling

This situation is pushing UGDs into the mainstream. Individuals and small groups with ideas for fun services are developing their own digital appliances, just to make the services possible. Countless development communities with user participation have sprung up, drawing in developments, corporations and others from round the world to develop equipment based on new ideas. This, then, is the shape of product development in the UGD era (Fig 4).

Even in Japan a succession of new business ventures is starting up to develop service-side Internet appliances. FreeBit Co Ltd of Japan, an Internet services provider (ISP), is one such firm. The company will release an Internet appliance with proprietary communication technology in spring 2009, initially to users subscribing to its network service. Hiroki Ishida, CEO, member of the board of the firm, explains, "We wanted to implement some interesting services together with hardware, and it was a lot faster to make it ourselves than to try to convince one of the major equipment manufacturers."

The foundation to the UGD development stance is the fact that component processes in equipment development and manufacturing are gradually getting organized. There are two main forces at work here: increased outsourcing of development and manufacturing, and open-sourcing of hardware, software, etc (Fig 5).

Small Groups Make UGDs

The increased use of outsourcing has created an environment where a few people can develop their own digital appliances, as demonstrated by the growing number of US tech start-ups developing Web gadgets. Digital appliances designed specifically to link up with Internet services such as video sharing or map information are being commercialized by companies with small development teams. Active utilization of Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) to handle small lots of several thousand units, outsourcing development and manufacture to external developers and similar resources has made it possible to slash in-house development personnel to the minimum.

FreeBit was able to enter the Internet appliance sector thanks to a capital participation agreement with digital appliance start-up Exemode Inc of Japan. The goal was to use the tie-up in equipment design to learn how to utilize EMS firms in China and elsewhere. The majority of hardware design is handled by Exemode, with manufacturing by EMS companies in China and elsewhere, in an approach that leverages the skills of external resources. In-house, about 10 developers (mostly software engineers) work on multiple projects concurrently. According to FreeBit's Ishida, "Having an EMS firm capable of manufacturing even small lots was important in entering the Internet appliance sector."

In the last few years, developers across the globe have been making growing use of temporary services via Websites, especially in the US. One such example is oDesk Corp of the US. If this trend grows in the future, small user communities will be able to outsource digital appliance development and manufacturing easier than ever before.

Open-Source Movement

Another critical change in the world of UGD is the spread of open-sourcing to hardware, software, etc. There is an increasing quantity of software, hardware and other functional components that can be picked up easily and inexpensively for equipment development (Fig 6).

In the software field, the use of open-source software has made it much easier to slash the cost, personnel and other resources needed for equipment development, because there is a growing fund of free software libraries available, including operating systems (OS) and device drivers for embedded applications. Android, the software for embedded applications developed by Google Inc of the US, is an excellent example.

It has also become relatively common for corporations to disclose application programming interfaces (API) free to the public, making it possible for other companies to tap the functions offered by their own Internet services. The manager of one Internet start-up says, "A few years ago you had to write a thousand lines of code to implement an Internet service, but these days you can achieve the same thing with only a couple." The increased variety of free embedded software, Internet service APIs and other resources has simplified the process of implementing Internet services in equipment.

Open-Source Hardware

Open-sourcing has come to the hardware field as well: so-called "open-source hardware". Design drawings needed to make circuits, function modules and other components are disclosed to the public, inviting other firms to make free use of them. This reduces hardware development cost and shortens the development time required.

Bug Labs of the US has released the design drawings for a group of modules called BUG, including liquid crystal display (LCD) panel display and acceleration sensor functions, under the General Public License (GPL).

Developers can make use of the public information to develop modules with new functions, and it is also possible to purchase modules from Bug Labs directly. Multiple modules can be combined like electronics blocks to create a variety of equipment using wireless local area networks (LAN). There are said to be over 1,000 developer communities already.

Other companies are also disclosing circuit drawings and other resources as open-source hardware, including Web gadget developer chumby industries and mobile phone developer Openmoko Inc of Taiwan. 

It is especially interesting to note that open-source hardware is being used as education tools at universities primarily in the US and elsewhere. A large number of foreign students from China, Taiwan, India and other nations that are providers of outsourcing of manufacturing, development, etc, attend those schools. As an increasing number of developers pick up the concepts, development skills and other aspects of open-source hardware, it is likely that their use will further accelerate.

To be continued

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