[mdlug] Reverse-engineering data protocols

[David McMillan]

On 3/3/2011 2:36 PM, Aaron Kulkis wrote:
>
> Sounds like this company is creating an IMMENSE
> business opportunity for anyone who can create
> decent test equipment AND
>
> a) be responsive to customer requests
> 	OR
> b) open-source the software
> [After all, you're making money on the test
> equipment, not the hardware drivers -- something
> which massive numbers of hardware manufacturers
> utterly fail to comprehend.]
     Yes, it would see fairly intuitive that expanding the flexibility 
of the equipment for end users would almost inevitably increase sales.

     The pushback I see from vendors on this subject generally runs 
along these lines:
1. opening up that level of access and/or releasing that level of 
details makes them vulnerable to reverse-engineering by competitors who 
then can sell a matching product at a lower price point without having 
to recoup the sunk R&D debts of the original developer
2. Doing this generates pressure to divert more of their experienced, 
skilled personnel into tech support roles for weirder and weirder things 
that end users and OEMs keep doing with the original platform, and away 
from doing more profitable R&D.
3. certain classes of "800-lb customers" who start insisting on all 
sorts of customizations and ruffles and flourishes, leading to...
4. severe product fragmentation, the kind of thing that people keep 
complaining about in regards to Android.

     To be fair, I've seen all of these play out in real-world scenarios 
-- there are some actual, concrete reasons for some of this attitude on 
the part of vendors.  I've personally been a victim of the "800-lb 
customer" waving his "you'll never get business from us again" club, and 
didn't have any leverage to push back b/c there were always a half-dozen 
competitors ready to offer 90% of my quality for 80% of the price (the 
purchasing scheme in a lot of corporate America is broken these days -- 
the guys who save money by cutting corners up front are not the ones who 
have to pay the cost of fixing those cut corners later).

     But now I'm REALLY off-topic, so I'd better stop.