Classroom Companion: Business

C
buys device
from DP
Device
provider
markets
. Fig. 17.8 Device providers in digital markets. (Authors’ own figure)
17.4 · Network Access Markets

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254
17
personal computers. Production and trade of such devices are not part of the digi-
tal economy as defined in this book. However, they constitute an integral part of 
the digital service ecosystem because digital services must be accessed through 
some sort of device produced and marketed by device providers. A specific device 
is interoperable with both the access services provided by ISPs and the applications 
provided by ASPs. This condition may, however, be device specific. For example, 
apps available at Apple App Store are only available for devices provided by Apple. 
However, technologically speaking, full interoperability exists between network 
access, devices, and applications—any device can be connected to any network and 
run any application. This separation of technologies between ISP, device provider, 
and ASP is the basic concept of the layered Internet model described in 
7
Chap. 
4
.
17.5 
 Information Service Markets
Information services are jointly offered by the ASP and the content provider and 
are traded in an information service market (Linde & Stock, 
2011
). They include 
content and applications ranging from simple apps to complex software. Huge 
amounts of digital content and applications are available for consumers. 
.
Table 
17.1
 contains examples of information services and how they may be 
categorized.
Some of the services listed in 
.
Table 
17.1
 are available internationally, while 
others have a regional target. Since the marginal cost of digital services is zero, it is 
. Table 17.1 Examples of information services. (Authors’ compilation)