Grace, I don't recall specifically reading or hearing Deshpande saying that, but it's a familiar theme these days, fostered in large part by the events of the past six or seven years, ever since the 'Net itself began to blossom.
In the air there is - especially in so-called "new world" Service Provider areas - this growing sense that taking calculated technological risks, even where standards and interoperability issues are involved (even where they weren't even thought of, or where it was assumed that they they would never be, previously), is a growing part of the overall formula for market share success, allowing first to market advantage.
The flipside to this is that those who don't take such calculated, albeit heightened, risks are merely hesitating and may be hesitating too long, while others sit down to lunch, signaling to some that it's time for them if they wait too long to select their final resting plots.
We continue to see new carrier- and other SP- business models evolving along these lines, especially those who are focusing in horizontal, as opposed to vertically integrated, activities. And the larger players are taking notice.
Thus far the legacy players have had the cash reserves and momentum from their extant suites of vertical services to sustain them, although with diminishing returns, allowing them to take a wait-and-see posture, while the startups prove in newer technologies and paradigms. But the advantage they possess, allowing them to do wait and see, is quickly narrowing.
FAC |
