There was once a company with a magnificent global vision. It would become a global telecommunications operator with everyone on the planet a potential customer.
The vision was to be implemented by putting up a satellite constellation. It was to be a network-in-orbit which even a Bedouin in the depths of the
Putting up the network cost $5bn. It turned out that its phones didn't work indoors. Hardly anyone subscribed to the orbiting network and it was eventually sold for a pittance.
MORAL: Customers prefer utility to a magnificent vision.
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Comments (14)
Did you ever see a handset? The aerials were huge! I worked for Motorola at the time and was proud of the idea and the technology, but another case of the wrong product at the wrong time. And it WAS a cool name.
Posted by Ian SMITH | March 26, 2009 6:23 PM
Posted on March 26, 2009 18:23
No, Ian I never saw one. Wish I had. I imagine they're museum pieces now.
Posted by David Manners
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March 26, 2009 8:09 PM
Posted on March 26, 2009 20:09
Heavy museum pieces, I would guess. Complete with battery packs the size of bricks, only heavier. You would need deep pockets to have one.
Loved the moral. I can think of several fables offering the same moral. What is amusing to see is the irrepressible temptation in various companies/CEOs to go after that magnificent vision while the menial task of figuring out the utility (isn't this called "business model" in CEO speak) is left as an exercise to the underlings (the yes men).
Posted by cheese | March 27, 2009 6:18 AM
Posted on March 27, 2009 06:18
Cheese you are so right. It's the same all over. I remember about a year before the launch of Iridium asking a public question at a Motorola conference about the strength of the signal needed to access a satellite from a mobile phone and getting no coherent reply. The vision obscured the reality.
Posted by David Manners
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March 27, 2009 10:34 AM
Posted on March 27, 2009 10:34
The funny thing is that the network is still operational and used by lots of people.
Apart from Osma Bin Laden and his friends, lots of journalists use it, as do sailors and others.
Maybe they weren't so stupid...
Posted by Andy Buck | March 31, 2009 11:50 AM
Posted on March 31, 2009 11:50
Harrumph! It's easy to rubbish overenthusiastic engineering, yet people threw gazillions at crazy financial schemes. $5bn is just loose change to them. AND they pied-pipered the bright young people away...
Posted by Peter Excell | March 31, 2009 11:54 AM
Posted on March 31, 2009 11:54
Iridium was initially going to launch 77 satellites. This gave it the name as Iridium is element number 77. Due to cost reasons the system was cut back to 66. However Dysprosium is not quite such a snappy name so they stayed with the original.
The newer Iridium phones are nothing like so clunky as the original ones.
http://www.satphone.co.uk/networks/iridium/portable_equipment.shtml
Posted by Chris Green | March 31, 2009 3:27 PM
Posted on March 31, 2009 15:27
Thanks Chris, I'll try and get hold of one
Posted by David Manners
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April 1, 2009 12:45 AM
Posted on April 1, 2009 00:45
As Andy & Chris point out, there is actually a fantastic second act to this story: the rebirth.
The new devices have some VERY impressive technology inside them too...
Posted by El Rupester | July 2, 2009 12:02 PM
Posted on July 2, 2009 12:02
The phones may still be big but they can be the only reliable way of phoning home if you're on a ship on the other side of the world.
Posted by Jeff Cousins | July 2, 2009 12:03 PM
Posted on July 2, 2009 12:03
Try:
http://www.heavens-above.com/iridium.asp
That's really what the network was for - predictable "shooting stars"! But it is wrong to wish on space hardware...
Posted by Lloyd Pople | July 2, 2009 12:19 PM
Posted on July 2, 2009 12:19
It wasn't the only one that was planned either, there were two others, one being TRW GlobalStar. Plus a High Altitude Platform version - basically stationary helium balloons -that even had the backing of Craig McCaw.
In 1995 I was at an IEEE conference keynote presentation by a senior TRW executive who asserted that GSM was 'purely a European phenomenon'. He implied the pig-headed Europeans wouldn't standardise to the superior US systems so they were having to take the initiative to put up a global satellite system so that their guys could do business while they were overseas. How many fallacies can you fit into one sentence? I wonder if he still has a job?
Posted by Helen Duncan | July 2, 2009 12:22 PM
Posted on July 2, 2009 12:22
I'll make an interesting prediction--Iridium will in the next 3 years nearly double it's current published subscription of 328K users. The key is price and ease-of-use. As good as is the new Iridium 9555, it more closely resembles a Nokia cell phone from 2000 than a typical cellphone today. Better user-experience will be key.
Posted by Jim Hillhouse | August 20, 2009 9:41 AM
Posted on August 20, 2009 09:41
Well that would be a turn up, Jim. Hope it happens.
Posted by David Manners
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August 20, 2009 10:40 AM
Posted on August 20, 2009 10:40