In a world structured like that, it sounds like there would be good business opportunity in developing software and services that run on a general computing device.
Yes, but it would not be anywhere near as lucrative as selling a prepackaged turnkey “good-enough” solution to the masses - where the profits from the vendor lock-in allow you to mount a solid marketing campaign to drive sales and eventual regulatory-capture, allowing you to act in an anti-competitive manner.
We, the geeks, may value open-platforms, but observe that it’s Google, Apple, Samsung and Amazon that effectively control consumer home-automation and smart appliances - and they sure as heck aren’t interested in making their platforms open and interoperable. (I’m speaking as a Nest customer who got screwed-over by Google closing Nest’s open API - that was a blatant anti-competitive move).
Something like what? I was simply stating that when the market closes in on options, competition tends to pop up to meet the needs of the customers that don't want to be boxed in.
