Paul Eijkemans writes, in part:
> What I would like to argue that it is not the telecom-technology
> manufacturers that have the best position for launching a consumer
> electronics device. It is the companies that have years of experience in
the
> consumer business. Whether that is with a game console, miniature watch,
> discman, or any other device that needs intuitive user interfaces. As long
> as it is not with manufacturing base stations and mobile switching center.
There's an irony here: Motorola, a major manufacturer of those
base stations and switching centers, actually started life as a mobile
wireless-communications consumer electronics company. And it
had, for its time, both incomparable user interface design quality
and the miniaturization that the targeted mode of mobility happen
to require.
In short, they made a success of the car radio, from which we
now have the reified "radio buttons" of GUIs.
Smart brand-name science, too: "Motor" as in motor car,
"-ola" from the Latin diminutive suffix meaning "small", a
play on "Victrola", a phonograph that was itself considered
a marvel of miniaturization in its heyday.
But I digress. The point is, Paul's right, so long as you
modify his statement to say "years of RECENT experience."
Motorola seems to be steadily losing its way, on the
handset side. Not to mention ethically - do some searches
on "Motorola" and "payola" to see what I mean there.
-m
leap@gol.com
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Mon Mar 19 13:49:04 2001