Monthly Archives: December 2008
Here is an interesting video on how China has started advertising on Silicon Valley billboards to attract tech talent from Silicon Valley back to China.America used to be the top magnet for tech talent in the world, but now risks losing that mantle as other countries develop. Will American companies be able to find a way to stop the brain drain back to immigrants’ home countries?Check it out:What do you think?@innovate
I came across an article today about Sprint offering a 3G/4G USB Modem for $149 with a $79.99 per month contract. This USB modem will automatically switch between Sprint’s 3G network and Clearwire’s 4G WiMax network when it is available (which is currently only in parts of Baltimore).It is a great step forward for Sprint/Clearwire that will make the service more attractive, but will people really pay an extra $20 a month for such a big external device?If they really want Clearwire to be a runaway success, they need to find a way to embed this kind of technology into the phone and allow tethering of the phone to any computer (especially laptops). If they did that and threw in 1000 minutes and unlimited texts and unlimited data for $60 per month. I’m in.What do you think?@innovate
Snow in Seattle today. It will be interesting to see how many of my current clients make it to their office today. I for one am taking the bus and despite it being a bendy bus, it looks like it will manage to make it downtown. It had to go out and around a jack-knifed bus to make it up and over the bridge out of my neighborhood, but it made it.Forecasters were sure we would get snow Tuesday night, but we didn’t, nor did we get snow yesterday despite their predictions all day that we would. Snow didn’t come to Seattle until last night. Most schools even announced closures based on these forecasts rather than waking up early to see if it had actually snowed. Forecasters blamed it on a “donut effect” meaning that the mountains to the west and east of Seattle took all the snow.This Seattle snow … Continue reading
Last week I came across an interview with Nassim Taleb, author of “The Black Swan.” Mr. Taleb went on to talk briefly about the main thesis of the book – that every so often events come along that change our vocabulary and our way of thinking about the world around us. The example given, related to the title of the book, was that people in England used to sometimes say “I’m as likely to see that happen as to see a black swan.” That of course was before the discovery of Australia, and before the discovery of – black swans. The point being that people always seek to explain the world around them using the past as a guide, but “black swans” always come along that don’t fit people’s previous understanding of the world.The author then went on to talk about how he saw the financial crisis coming, and how … Continue reading
Clearwire recently completed the acquisition of Sprint’s WiMax assets. Sprint’s assets merge together with Clearwire’s original WiMax assets to create the nation’s largest WiMax operator.I hate to beat up a local business, but Clearwire/Sprint represents a perfect case study of the perils of:1) Letting ego drive strategy instead of market fundamentals2) Launching into the marketplace too soonClearwire originally launched in smaller American cities where fixed-line consumer broadband was not widely available (making wireless broadband an attractive option). But, not content to fully exploit this niche, Clearwire instead began building out and promoting wireless broadband networks in first-tier cities like Seattle with a product that provided inferior speeds, service, and value. Instead of maximizing their niche strategy and waiting for technology and execution that provided a compelling value proposition for first-tier markets, they chose to launch with a sub-optimal offering and significantly increase their cash burn. I would argue that Clearwire … Continue reading
