>>Those guys in the 'Ghost' thread still live in the US Robotic era and they have steadfastly refused to know or discuss or have anything to do with 3COM!!
What's to discuss? <ggg>
It's been slow to develop, but the day of reckoning gets closer every day. 3Com knew what they were doing when they bought USR. Their techies knew that the k56Flex consortium was nothing but a bunch of rhetoric hastily thrown together when news of x2 leaked (after all, they were a "charter" member). The consortium members cranked up their FUD engines and shipped non-upgradeable product to temporarily cover their collective asses when they got caught with their pants down at their ankles.
The non-x2 camp has an inferior product on the critical client side. In the 56k world, it's the client modem that's smart - the server just follows the client's direction, and is thus relatively easy to implement since it's on the digital side. Most of the client modem OEMs use the Rockwell chipset (which was likely reverse engineered from x2). Every one of those OEM's designs their own logic and interface, so everyone's implementation is different. As more ISPs deploy V.90, the superiority of USR clients will become widely known (as well as the inferiority and incompatibility of the Rockwell based modems). Not only will it be Jack Rickard delivering the facts, but a host of other industry rags.
If there was any mistake, it was in not realizing how effective the consortium FUD would be, which left 3Com/USR with a huge inventory and reluctant market. Also, you don't put two companies the size of 3Com and Robotics together without a little pain and period of adjustment. Remember, there was little redundancy in the two product lines; 3Com was the network infrastructure and USR was the modulation and physical layer. It looks like the combined remote access has stumbled a little, but that will be self-correcting. As the two organizations merge into a single purpose company, the synergies of the merger will be realized.
Oh, and don't forget Brent Townshend - you haven't heard the end of that issue. I suspect that Lucent, Rockwell and Motorola will rue the day they sent Mr. Townshend and his technology packing to end up at USR!
Back to the Ghost hangout..... |
