The consequences of these options on cost are depicted in Fig 2. In the top half of this picture, the arrow shows the path of decreasing software cost. Internal reuse is cheaper than creating code for customers separately by NXP, but it is even cheaper to let the customer develop the software by itself. The bottom half of Fig 2 shows the added value for the customer, which does not change if NXP develops all software (and independent of the way that they develop it), but which does change if the customer has to develop software. The sweet spot between cost and added value lies there where NXP provides a platform and the customer adds functionality to the platform.

Fig 2. Cost versus added value

Note that the customer is never charged separately for the platform software; software costs are implicitly included in the hardware cost.

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