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Technology Stocks : George Gilder - Forbes ASAP -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1861)	7/25/1999 2:49:00 AM
From: jeremic	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5853

Where do I sign up for the Frank Coluccio Technology Report? : ) Although a bit too technical for my sophmoric understanding of networking, it was quite an informative read! Thanks! jeremic

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1861)	8/1/1999 1:14:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 5853

A couple of interesting reads in the most recent issues of America's Network Magazine by David Isenberg of stupid network fame: americasnetwork.com americasnetwork.com The following snip is from the first. Enjoy, Frank Coluccio ===============begin snip: We're all incumbents on this bus The most potent disrupters might not even seem relevant to us. By David S. Isenberg At Vortex99 last May, Bob Martin, the CTO of Lucent Bell Labs, presented a sweeping review of technological progress in the telecom infrastructure. He is a self-described "terrific fan" of The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business School Press, 1997). Referring to Christensen's central concept, he said that Lucent was learning to work differently with incumbent and disruptive customers. This seemed like an exciting advance, so I arranged a follow-up interview. I expected that Martin would explain how Lucent's incumbent customers were driving toward "better-faster-cheaper" - this is my 'looks-like-a-duck, waddles-like-a-duck' test for sustaining technology. And I thought he'd say that Lucent's disruptive customers were creating markets that seem irrelevant to today's telcos but, with Lucent's help, would expand from below to engulf telephony-classic markets - this is my 'duck' test for disrupters. Surprisingly, Martin focused on similarities. He said, "Both the incumbents and the disrupters see the end game of the market as very much the same. [They both want] a very high-speed packet backbone, optics at the center, a variety of broadband access mechanisms [and Internet Protocol (IP) as] the predominant application protocol." Describing a two-year-old difference between telcos old and new, he declared, "Cost-effective circuit to packet - we built it. That debate is over." As for differences, Martin seemed to be saying that Lucent's incumbent customers wanted better ("exceedingly high quality of service"), while the ones he labeled 'disruptive' wanted faster ("getting to market very quickly"). New technology, old marketplace The Innovator's Dilemma shows clearly that not every new technology is disruptive. Most new technologies, in fact, are sustaining. By extension, not every new market entrant, even one riding on new technology, is a disrupter.. --------------end snip