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To: gdichaz who wrote (37939)	1/14/2001 1:57:35 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 54805

Cha2, << re: trying to get SI to function more often with less frustration for us and re: Qualcomm - especially digging into the implications of the standards progressions >> There is a lesson in what we have been witnessing since 8PM Thursday night on SI, and it relates to what is happening in the wireless world which in turn relates to standardization, and especially the interoperability issues that standardization sets out to address. On Thursday night at about 8PM (a nice quiet time) SI evidently made a change - probably a small one, and probably in HTML code, that they felt they needed to make. They had just stableized SI after several disrupted weeks. I'm sure they did not expect to disrupt users the following day in prime time. The change affected many users, and it affected them in different ways. It appears that how it affects the SI user depends on a number of things: * OS Platform - Mac v. WIN (Linux) * Browser - IE v. Netscape (Opera) * Generation of OS or Browser * Updates to OS or Browser that have been applied/not applied * Options set by individual users. This can be easily related to the world of wireless mobile telephony. I'll use the GSM world as an example (because it is larger, older, more complex, more robust from a data services perspective, and has more regional variations than CDMA) where GPRS needs to be backward compatible with GSM and forward compatible with UMTS, as they move from circuit to packet data.. Although BT Cellnet launched GPRS last June, slowly and successfully, using a few wireless devices (modems, PC cards) carriers are waiting (impatiently for fully debugged handsets. There are vary few available. Motorola got a loud cheer for bringing them on early, in time for Xmas. It looked like they had saved the day. Sonera of Finland went through initial integration testing and rushed the Motorola phones into retail stores. Whoops. They work, but not well. Big black eye for GPRS. Haste makes waste. First to market only works if the customer is satisfied. So why the problem? The Sonera infrastructure is Ericsson and Nokia. The phones are Motorola. They are all working from the same standard ... but ... rather obviously Motorola interpreted the standard slightly differently than Nokia & Ericsson whose own phones are not ready for prime time and may not be ready because they may be encountering the same problems as Motorola. It will all work out, but it takes time. Users (unfortunately) get affected. The same will happen in the CDMA world, which is why it is a tad premature to brag about 1xRTT, which may or may not be working well for the one and only network to act as an early adopter of a new technology. Remember, there are significant regional differences between CDMA in Korea and the US, and SKT already has experience with CDMA packet data where the US carriers do not. We are doing a generational shift, with huge variables. Wireless packet data transition is going to take a bit more time than us impatient QCOM (or in my case NOK as well) shareholders would like. It IS a transition year. Things will look a lot brighter, and be more in focus, this time next year. I'll comment back on your question later. Gotta watch the Giants mop up on the Vikes (another bad prior prediction from me). I guess the Giants are for real! - Eric -