Draft book chapter: Sørensen, C. (Forthcoming): Digital Platform and -Infrastructure Innovation. In Mobile Strategy Challenges (In Japanese), ed. H. Higashikuni. Tokyo: Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Ltd. Please do not cite or circulate without the author’s explicit permission! Digital Platform and -Infrastructure Innovation Carsten Sørensen The London School of Economics and Political Science Department of Management The Information Systems and Innovation Group London, UK c.sorensen@lse.ac.uk www.carstensorensen.com www.digitalinfrastructures.org 1 INTRODUCTION The past 20 years the role of digital infrastructures has expanded from a common good in society to an essential strategic and operational aspect of large organisations. Even for the smallest commercial enterprises advanced digital infrastructures can function as a platform for innovation and development. The second decade of the 21st Century has indeed turned into the decade of the global digital infrastructure in general, and that of the digital platform in particular. There is currently not a sufficient understanding of the dynamics of digital infrastructures and -platform. This chapter reviews state-of-the-art in digital infrastructure and -platform innovation and explores the main challenges for further our current conceptualisations. The chapter argues for considering digital platform innovation as a particular instance of digital infrastructure innovation. Many of the ideas in this chapter are also presented in a series of 10 easy-to-follow 3-minute videos on YouTube. Go to www.digitalinfrastructures.org for more information and direct access to the videos. 1.1 The iPhone Revolution Despite many relevant developments prior to the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, then this event marked a watershed in the development of information technology. Not only is the the iPhone an example of the power of beautifully designed technology, but more importantly, the sequence of events its inception triggered has transformed the mobile industry from handset providers focusing on