> Sony, for example, isn't exactly known for their world-class software, are they?
Sony contracts out a lot of their software needs, and some of it out of Japan so that's probably not a good example to pick.
Sony contracts out a lot of their software needs, and some of it out of Japan so that's probably not a good example to pick.
The rapid industrialization of Korea over the last 50 years put a heavy emphasis on hardware: first it was clothes and shoes, then it was cars and TV, and now the focus is on memory chips and displays. Hardware is visible, tangible, easily quantifiable. "We shipped 10 million phones this month!"
But a culture that is obsessed with hardware will often have difficulty appreciating the value of software. Even nowadays, salaries for software developers are often calculated in the same way they calculate the wages for manual laborers [1], and the hourly rate is only around 2x of what manual laborers earn ($200/day vs. $90/day on average). Software is seen as something you do by throwing a bunch of man-hours at it. After all, that's how you've been doing hardware all along.
The same thing seems to happen in Japan, though to a somewhat lesser extent. Sony, for example, isn't exactly known for their world-class software, are they?
[1] Recommended daily wages for various skill levels, as of 2012: http://www.kdb.or.kr/info/info_01_07.php?mode=detail&dbnum=2...