"This is a model known as Innovate - Leverage - Commoditise (ILC)" -- +Simon Wardley  #readingToday  

If you commoditise an act (A[2] to A[3]) to a more industrialised form which enables others to innovate (B[1], C[1], D[1]) then you can leverage the consumption of your underlying component (A[3]) by others to detect successful changes (e.g. D[1] to D[2]).  You can then commoditise any identified successful component (e.g. D[2]) to a more industrialised form in order to repeat the process.  Hence by being a first mover to commoditise (A[2] to A[3]) and by exploiting consumption information then you are constantly in a position to be a fast follower (D[1] to D[2]) to any successful change without incurring the heavy R&D risk because everyone else is innovating for you.

This is a model known as Innovate - Leverage - Commoditise (ILC) and it's fairly old hat having first been applied pre-2005.