The number of million dollar open source hardware companies is growing. Could the industry reach $1 billion by 2015?
Selling products whose design anyone can access, edit, or use on their own is pretty crazy. It’s also good business. At the annual hacker conference Foo Camp East this year, Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried from Adafruit Industries gave a rapid fire five minute presentation on thirteen companies with million dollar revenues from open source hardware (OSHW). Companies providing OSHW allow all designs of the products to be shared through an open license, meaning that everyone is free to download, modify, and share all the schematics and associated software. You’re encouraged to make, refine, or even sell your own versions of these products. While this business model is counter-intuitive for those used to our patent and copyright loving system, Torrone and Fried estimate that the industry will reach a billion dollars by 2015. Check out their talk in the video below.
Among the OSHW baker’s dozen are names that we’re familiar with. We’ve long admired MakerBot and their 3D printing prowess, BugLabs’ modular approach to electronic gadgetry is top notch, and we’ve seen Arduino enabled projects do some amazing things. Most of the other companies mentioned are equally interesting. What really impresses me, however, is how quickly this industry as a whole is growing. Just five years ago, there were only a handful of OSHW projects actively supported. Now there are more than 200. And these million dollar companies are still expanding.
Slides from this presentation (Million dollar baby – Businesses designing and selling open source hardware, making millions) are available in PDF.
Open source hardware may still be relatively new, but the open source idea is well tested in software. Linux is a definitive player in the world of operating systems, and there are hundreds (if not thousands) of open source programs of professional grade ready for you to use freely. I’m typing this article on OpenOffice right now.
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, the open paradigm is changing the way the world works. Small businesses (and larger ones) are seeing that profits and sharing can go hand in hand. Limor and Fried’s list of thirteen companies are great examples of OSHW “retailers” making an impact and growing their market. Add to that list research and development communities we’ve seen such as Willow Garage, ROS, OpenWetWare, Pearl Biotech, Pranav Mistry (Sixth Sense), and more. Together these groups are part of a large trend that is re-examining the way that intellectual property is managed and developed. Share your work openly and innovation is accelerated. Give your consumers rights to their goods and they will help develop them (and stay loyal to the brand). As the open source community continues to expand it may not only change the way we conceive of ownership of technology, it may also foster the growth of that technology with unparalleled success…and you still might be able to get rich while it happens.
[screen capture and video credit: Adafruit Industries]
[source: Adafruit Industries]
Tags: Adafruit, Foo Camp, Limor Fried, open source hardware, open source license, Phillip Torrone
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[...] Torrone and Limor Fried from Adafruit Industries gave a rapid fire five-minute presentation on thirteen companies with million+ dollar revenues from open source hardware. The thirteen add up to $50 million this year. While this business model is counterintuitive for [...]
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to summarise they are selling IT services (not products) and have a reasonable turnover. Nothing new here – there are alot of service companies across many sectors. Did someone just get their MBA or something?
[...] in open source hardware I found yesterday’s Singularity Hub post by Aaron Saenz on 13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More (video) to be of great interest. While his post reminded me of the delightful quote from the Wired article [...]
[...] Open source hardware has become an economic engine that may eventually dwarf software if we let ourselves think beyond the real of computers and electronics. In fact, at least 13 1 million + companies have grown from open source hardware. At the annual hacker conference Foo Camp East this year, Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried from Adafruit Industries gave a rapid fire five minute presentation on thirteen companies with million dollar revenues from open source hardware (OSHW). Companies providing OSHW allow all designs of the products to be shared through an open license, meaning that everyone is free to download, modify, and share all the schematics and associated software. You’re encouraged to make, refine, or even sell your own versions of these products. While this business model is counter-intuitive for those used to our patent and copyright loving system, Torrone and Fried estimate that the industry will reach a billion dollars by 2015. (Singularity Hub) [...]
[...] 13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More (video) Selling products whose design anyone can access, edit, or use on their own is pretty crazy. It’s also good business. At the annual hacker conference Foo Camp East this year, Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried from Adafruit Industries gave a rapid fire five minute presentation on thirteen companies with million dollar revenues from open source hardware (OSHW). Companies providing OSHW allow all designs of the products to be shared through an open license, meaning that everyone is free to download, modify, and share all the schematics and associated software. [...]
[...] 13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More (video) While this business model is counter-intuitive for those used to our patent and copyright loving system, Torrone and Fried estimate that the industry will reach a billion dollars by 2015. (tags: business opensource patents) [...]
Buglabs has some awesome open source hardware. Glad to see they are doing well
[...] 13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More [...]
[...] estudio realizado por Phillip Torrone Limor Fried, empleados de Adafruit Industries, revela que el hardware [...]
[...] estudio realizado por Phillip Torrone Limor Fried, empleados de Adafruit Industries, revela que el hardware [...]
[...] In related news, there is a post over at singularityhub.net entitled, “13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More (video)”. They say, “. . . the open paradigm is changing the way the world works. Small businesses (and larger ones) are seeing that profits and sharing can go hand in hand. . . Together these groups are part of a large trend that is re-examining the way that intellectual property is managed and developed. Share your work openly and innovation is accelerated. Give your consumers rights to their goods and they will help develop them (and stay loyal to the brand)”. (Link!) [...]
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[...] of years is starting to show magnificent results. The Singularity Hub blog recently published an interesting article that highlights how a range of companies and projects have used the open source ideology to create [...]
[...] friends, recently in the snoringly named article 13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More (video) there were some astoundingly fun-looking devices. Now don’t get me wrong, when anyone thinks [...]
[...] can access, edit, or use on their own is pretty crazy. It’s also good business according to 13 Open Source Hardware Companies Making $1 Million or More (video) article. The article mentions thirteen companies with million dollar revenues from open source [...]
[...] estudio realizado por Phillip Torrone Limor Fried, empleados de Adafruit Industries, revela que el hardware [...]
Open source hardware is still young, but it is making inroads. I have a project that is working to accelerate the development cycle for open source hardware. Two things we are working toward is funding open source hardware projects, and decreasing cost of production through an open source electronic manufacturing line. http://opencapitalist.org/content/open-source-electronic-manufacturing-line
I feel open source, specifically moving past competition toward cooperation is going to truly change the world.
Regards,
Darren