<The company already has gotten rid of most of its core businesses, leaving only an outer ring of
poorly connected peripherals. These include things like the Eudora e-mail program, and the
Omnitracs fleet management product. If Qualcomm is shedding things like the CDMA
infrastructure business, surely its e-mail program is hardly a high priority.>
Jeff, A good article, especially the haiku, and it captured the philosophy of Irwin Jacobs = spin off everything. He's like a black hole in reverse, not sucking everything in, but creating and spinning everything out.
But John Sullivan has not got the right idea on email. He seems to think email is trivial; just something to send silly messages. He's wrong. When people use the Carmmunicator, they will download something from the Web, talk, or they will send something or receive something from somebody else.
Downloading Webstuff would be on a browser. Talking we know about. If they do the third thing, they will be doing it either by talking with somebody, or sending or receiving a voice/image/email/money.
This will require Eudora!
Eudora will be the packet carrier. Eudora will be as big as you can imagine. This is just my theory.
But wait, there's more!
Spinco doesn't need GSM. Yes, that's right. Forget about GSM. Think about Leap Wireless for a minute. How about roaming? Don't forget Globalstar.
While it's tempting to think that what we need is a multimode, multiband all-in-one 3G gadget to take everywhere, we don't really need that at all. Especially given the cost of it and how often we'll be buying the latest models as features improve and how little we will really require the roaming features.
Our house is now full of cellphones, ADSL, portable phones and wired phones. Not only that, there are more connections than people. You see, some price plans make it more economic to use the phone during the day, others at night and weekends. So, what you do, is have two phones!
So we could have a Leap Wireless phone for being comfortably in the Cricket zone. If visiting a neighbouring town or Europe, we'd take the GSM phone with the right frequency. If going bush or in the car, we'd use the Globalstar phone. Around the house, we'd use our ADSL Bluetooth linked portable.
We would think of phones geographically. A phone for each function. Sort of like a single remote would be nice, but in fact, we have one for a tv, video player, music machine, garage door, house door [I wish I had one - hmm, note to self = Get One].
Leap Wireless International could simply buy spectrum in Zurch, for example, then build a Comfortable Network. People living there would figure out fairly easily that they could use the Blue Leap phone for round town, then if going somewhere else in Europe, take the other phone. Or if to Australia to get Opals in the Outback, take the Globalstar phone [or all three]. They are not very big these days and the old problem of price causing Cell Shock has almost gone.
Maybe SpinCo doesn't need GSM, which will only last about 3 years anyway, as networks are overlaid to 3G CDMA. Start producing cdma2000 and W-CDMA chips [or MC-CDMA and DS-CDMA ASICs which is the same thing for those not able to keep up with the jargon]. Don't worry about integrating GSM.
Which network is going to want to be last to offer CDMA and fast WWeb access. GPRS is turning into a sad, slow, joke. The Bleeding EDGE is DOA. W-CDMA might or might not one day, far from now, turn into a real standard and eventually into a real product.
If GSM IP owners don't want to sell their technology to Spinco for say, 1% royalty, then forget it!
Just a thought.
But wait! There's more!! Not only is Eudora amazing!!! Not only is GSM irrelevant!!! With those two, bundled together, you get at no extra charge: the JJJ Klan [Judge Jackson, Janet Reno and Joel Klein] will NOT be going for QUALCOMM!!!! = that's a 4 exclamation mark!!!! Hooray!!!! Q! is unbundling. Irwin has defeated the evil JJJ Klan before they even knew they were going to attack! Now THAT's artful war.
They will, as demanded by Judge Jackson and perhaps yet the Supreme Court of Microsoft, form a company for each CDMA patent; each Eudora; each Globalstar, OmniTRACS, Leap Wireless, Handset division, Infrastructure division, Cinecomm, Carmmunicator, Q-Money. There were be about 1000 companies [one for each patent and gadget type]. They will be like galaxies in the firmament, sprinkling across the sky, each generating more stuff in their area, providing sustenance and life as Ericsson, Kyocera and Leap are now enjoying and soon Spinco will enjoy.
Mqurice
< Many business groups
Mundane thoughts weigh down my soul
Spin off everything> |
