Kevin Werbach wrote another great piece yesterday on the inversion of business models. It’s about the way in which some businesses are providing the core service for free and charging for add-on’s. "But what if the connectivity were free, the applications were free, and users paid only for the add-ons? Could that ever work?", he asks, and then cites Skype.
As a thought experiment, this is a great read. Connectivity isn’t free, with Skype, however. And, the complexity associated with building a value chain based model around monetizing Skype add-ons, and paying the owners of the pipes from the revenues associated with the add-on’s is difficult to comprehend.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
