"Most IP for software products, consumer and enterprise... as well as software components of networking equipment."
I may be having a "senior moment" here. IP?
"...btw I don't include Linux because that is a unix variant which came from US)"
Reminds me of a good one I read once:
"Only two really important things came out of Berkeley, Unix and LSD. We do not consider this to be a coincidence."
No attribution because I don't remember who wrote it.
To call Linux just a variant of unix does a disservice to Torvalds. If it was just unix, nobody would ever have heard of it. But, Linus primarily wrote the kernel. Much of the development has been done by US programmers and much also from others around the world. A non-denominational effort, if you will.
It's true that most of the primary design of computers, networks, and software has been done here. US DARPA was the pioneer. That said, an increasing amount of coding innovation and SW design is being done in India, as well as China. I remember well when Japanese cars, the sixties datsuns and hondas, were a joke. But Deming showed them a path, and now I won't own an american car. They are crap by comparison. Even the Korean cars, a joke in the eighties, are now better than Fords and Chevys. Just as our manufacturing base is gradually moving offshore, so will other areas where we once were dominant. We invented television, but do you know how long it's been since there was an american manufacturer of TVs? Stereo equipment? Cameras? These few things you've mentioned amount to a tiny fraction of our GDP, and they are in jeopardy. For the rest, we have to compete. Our competitive record isn't good.
The world's leading ERP sw company is SAP. German. The second is PSFT. It would probably shock you if you knew how large a % of the development team at PSFT is Indian, Pakistani, and Chinese here on work visas because PSFT can't find enough educated americans. It's a travesty.
Our last bastion of dominance and innovation is Financial Engineering. It remains to be seen whether those skills are a blessing or a curse. |
