It also drives innovation.

Quite the contrary in my experience, capitalism typically restrains innovation. Patent trolls are just one of many examples.

Not saying I've got a better idea than capitalism, but I wouldn't consider it ideal.

Patents are only possible through government regulation. Without the government's interference, there would be no such concept. Pure capitalism has no patents.

Even with Patent trolls and week patents, patents still allow companies to license innovative technology rather than hide it away for fear of copying (ala qualcomm)

Patents are a good idea, it's the current implementation that sucks

It's the worst system we know of, except for all the others.

It may be a factor on slow improvement, but true innovation comes from the passionate minds of geniuses.

When the competition starts using your own improvements/innovations against your products, you are obliged to keep the secret.

This is only the case when you have something to fear from superior competition. That is the capitalist system. Even in the FOSS world, which is largely affected by capitalism the spirit of sharing and collective advancement is incredibly common.

Let me rephrase my statement, because I didn't make my main idea clear enough:

"When the competition starts using your own improvements/innovations against your products, and they are not moving a single finger to push innovation, you are obliged to keep the secret."

I don't mind if the competition improves my work, this is more than enough incentive to push innovation forward, but when the competition stalls and makes a verbatim implementation of my work, or worse enough, depends solely on my improvements to stay relevant, I honestly prefer to keep the secret to myself. I don't want parasite competitors, I want talented competitors.

I'm unsure of your point. Of course it's not capitalist to share, but that doesn't mean it's not right.

because capitalism.

isn't that the spirit of open source? Yep IS IT.

There are many motives for keeping secrets. Look at the NSA, or pretty much any government.

Well certainly, but in this case the motivation is anticompetitive.

Or procompetitive, depending on one's outlook.

Well, in this particular case I agree. Its unlikley that you will make your own ARM SOC or blobs because the Snapdragon blobs are unavalible to you. But one can see the secrets as an anti-feature and choose an alternative supplier that is less secret. While Google / Asus didnt the end users might.

Ah I see you're saying that keeping secrets may motivate clients to pick someone other than you, and potentially increase competitiveness if the market presence of 'secret keepers' is minimal.

I think it's pretty tricky to consider that a real 'effect', as if the alternative companies kept secrets then it would be just as bad.

It rewards success and thus incentivizes more competition.