I’ve been curious about the Xbox Kinect system for quite some time, and last night, I finally bit the bullet and purchased one.  Simply put, it’s a fantastic device, with flawless voice recognition and an innovative use of physical gestures to control the Xbox environment.  My decision to finally buy a Kinect was largely spurred by a recent Wired article about how the Kinect has been a massive game-changer for robotics researchers, as the device can easily be hacked, turning the game controller into a sophisticated, integrated array of field sensors that previously cost close to half a million dollars.  Microsoft, in a decided break from its longstanding animus towards hackers, has embraced this secondary market for the Kinect, recently announcing that it will release a software development kit to allow users to integrate the Kinect with their Windows 7 PCs, and even more recently, announced that they would soon offer a full-fledged robotics software development kit, as well.

Microsoft’s attitude towards the Kinect is emblematic of a larger sea-change in the electronics industry, with an ever-growing number of companies handing consumers the keys to their previously “black-boxed” products.  Cellphone giant HTC, for instance, has pledged that all of its phones will ship with unlocked bootloaders, thereby allowing users to easily root their phones, and access features and functionality unavailable within the stock mobile operating environment.  All of these developments got me wondering; how do small businesses feel about “hacking” the products they use on a daily basis?

Perhaps “hacking” is too strong a term for the type of activities I’ve outlined above, wherein manufacturers themselves are opening their products to allow a far greater degree of user customization and control.  While such developments may be wonderful for individual end-users, it seems as though the implications of this “Great Opening” might be mixed for small business and enterprise clients, as this increased flexibility can bring issues of intra-system compatibility and compliance along with it.  If you’re a small business owner with five employees who are always on the road, rooting their Android work phones to allow free wireless tethering might seem like a great idea, but what happens if those devices no longer qualify for warranty replacement?

As a small business owner or employee, what have your experiences been with “hacking” and “rooting” work-devices?  Any success stories?  Any horror stories?  Tell us your experiences in the comments section, and we’ll include them in a future follow-up to this post.