Check out this essay by Om Malik, Bell Labs & Google: Bookends of the Same Sad Story? I’ve read his essays on the technology scene since the 90s. He has a track record.
The essence of the story is that both of these storied organizations that developed so much of what we use have been captured with management rather than leaders lacking vision and the persistence to see things through.
That raised questions about the state of our industrial market. When I observe the major advertisers in the automation and control magazines are master distributors rather than technology developers, I wonder. I thought I saw reasons for optimism a few years ago at Rockwell Automation, but that seems to have fizzled. The cash still flows (for now) at the tech companies in the industrial market. But for how long?
Is the market so mature that small tweaks are all that is needed?
They all have the products that helped them grow. The question still begging an answer is what’s next, if anything.
