Mannerisms

Bedevilled, as I have been recently, by the difficulties of getting my first 3G phone to work, I was heartily relieved to hear from Gilles Delfassy: “When I get a phone with new functions on it I often have to ask the IT engineers for help.”

Why is that significant? Well Delfassy started Texas Instruments’ digital wireless business some 26 years ago, and currently heads it up. It is the biggest product division within TI, and one of the biggest wireless chip operations in the world.

He’s seen the digital wireless industry develop from zero to today’s massive industry, and has been intimately involved with each generational technical evolution along the way.

So, when Delfassy can’t get his new phone to work, it makes me feel better because I, also, have had to make the humiliating trek down to the IT department and admit defeat.

“The new phones can be very difficult and complicated to use”, says Delfassy, who is looking for better things from the Apple iPhone. “The iPhone will be very good for the industry”, he reckons.

Now, when my friends snigger that I’m a technological Neanderthal because I can’t get a Bluetooth pairing to work, or connect up my laptop to my phone, I shall remember Delfassy and refuse to get fazed. Thank you Gilles.