In recent years, many high-technology industries, ranging from “smart” cell phones to social networking Web sites such as Facebook Inc. and MySpace.com, have become platform battlegrounds. These markets require distinctive competitive strategies because the products are parts of systems that combine core components made by one company with complements usually made by a variety of companies. If a platform leader emerges and works with the companies supplying complementary products and services, they can together form an “ecosystem” of innovation that can greatly increase the value of their innovations as more users adopt the platform and its complements. However, companies often fail to turn their products into industry platforms.

Our previous research focused on understanding the levers or strategic mechanisms that existing platform leaders use to maintain their positions. (See “About the Research,” p. 31.) This article focuses on the special problems of companies that want to become platform leaders — “platform-leader wannabes.” Many companies do not succeed in becoming platform leaders because their strategies fail to tackle adequately both the technology and business aspects of platform leadership. The technological challenges involve designing the right architecture, designing the right interfaces/connectors and disclosing intellectual property selectively, in order to facilitate third-parties’ provision of complements. The business challenges include either making key complements or introducing incentives for third-party companies to create the complementary innovations necessary to build market momentum and defeat competing platforms.

Our strategic recommendations consist of two basic approaches. (See “Strategic Options for Platform-Leader Wannabes,” p. 32.) One strategy, “coring,” addresses the challenges of creating a new platform where one has not existed before. The second strategy, “tipping,” tackles the problem of how to win platform wars by building market momentum.1

The Platform Vs. Product Strategy Choice

There is an important difference between a product and an industry platform. Put simply, a product is largely proprietary and under one company’s control, whereas an industry platform is a foundation technology or service that is essential for a broader, interdependent ecosystem of businesses. The platform requires complementary innovations to be useful, and vice versa. An industry platform, therefore, is no longer under the full control of the originator, even though it may contain certain proprietary elements.

Managers sometimes underestimate the importance of deciding early on between pursuing a product or a platform strategy. This decision matters because the industry conditions and business choices that favor a platform can differ from those that favor