Telcos not “getting it”. Shocking, I know. This BW piece is actually really good on a couple of points. First and foremost, it’s been my observation in anything related to the technology industry that large companies who empower marketing organizations with the responsibility for new product and technology conception do a disservice to the entire company and tragically suboptimize their future prospects. Marketing organizations won’t cannibalize an existing revenue stream to get a new one, nor will they innovate in any way other than a linear fashion… taking what already exists and evolving it. Telcos long ago gave up the title of R&D powerhouses, it’s really that simple, so their (AT&T and Verizon) claims about innovation are more than suspect.
The second point that was interesting is how ingrained the notion that these technologies have to be complex, as evidenced by the fact that the one thing the reporter found himself wanting was the thing they didn’t talk about yet actually already had developed, integration of satellite and DSL. “One feature of the set-top box AT&T has developed for Homezone is the ability to get music files easily from a PC and play them on a television or home entertainment system.”
BTW, thank God for Clearwire! Maybe the combination of a telco insider who is a maverick, a serious amount of capital, and a fundamentally disruptive technology (Wimax) will break the stranglehold that telcos have on the communications marketplace.
The Phone Companies Still Don’t Get It:
It’s a classic moment, an illustration of where the power lies in telecom. It is tough — no, make that impossible — to think of another ostensibly technology-focused industry where the chief technical architect of a planned multibillion-dollar, company-changing project does not merit so much as an introduction. In fact, in San Antonio, that architect, John Kirby, neatly managed to dispel any confusion about the status of engineering at the company when, after clarifying what it is he does, he explained that when it came to big new projects, “marketing dreams it up, and then I have to design it.”