The Soft Approach: Transforming Hardware Companies

The transition of both film and video editing from hardware to software is emblematic of moves by leading companies in the technology, industrial goods, and consumer electronic industries. Traditional hardware companies are trying to build software businesses in response to customers' demands, market opportunity, rapid price declines, and pressure from disruptive new pure-play software Competitors. In light of the revenue and cost constraints that both customers and vendors face in today's economy, the need for this transition has taken on added urgency, but hardware companies are struggling to adjust their operations, capabilities, and identity to the imperatives and economics of software.