A Google Fiber Impact

Image via CrunchBase

It is fair to say gigabit broadband will spawn new companies and industries.

Entrepreneurs Dream of Jumping on Super-Fast Network

the area's entrepreneurs are plotting how to capitalize on the one-gigabit communications network in creative ways. ..... "Google Fiber has gotten the whole city thinking about technology." ..... Google Fiber is so powerful that it will improve education technology and transform how businesses operate. .... enabling one-gigabit Internet speeds across the country .... the cost would eventually be tens of billions of dollars ..... some elderly patients aren't facile with computers and a TV set is thus a better way to monitor them at home. ..... He now pays $1,400 a month for a network that supports a fraction of the bandwidth Google will offer. ...... Some of the entrepreneurs building products and businesses that will capitalize on Google Fiber may have a tough time drawing major backing from venture capitalists. The Kansas City region is still considered fly-over country by investors

The Great Recession's outcome should have been gigabit broadband for every American. That is where at least half a trillion should have gone. But that perhaps was not meant to be.

Related articles

• Google Fiber: Not So Revolutionary
• Google Fiber Promises Greater Regularity for All
• Google Australia's Engineering Director Explains Why We Don't Need Google Fiber
• Google's Fiber "Proof of Concept" Is Anything But
• Google Fiber demo in KC a success
• Google Fiber offers 7 years of free internet
• How Google Fiber Could Kill The Competition
• Google's Lightning-fast Fiber Network Now Live in Kansas City
• Meet the three boxes that will transform your apartment into a swinging Google Fiber pad

RIM's Options

"Getting it" is not enough. It is said the top people at Sony all "get it." They all know exactly what needs to be done. But the dysfunctional corporate culture gets in the way. When a company is on a downswing much damage gets done to its corporate culture. A turnaround is not just about "getting it."

I don't have any particular insight into where RIM's corporate culture stands today. But as for vision, there seem to be a few options.

The obvious one is to claw back into the smartphone space. How do you do that? Do you get rid of the physical keyboard? What do you do? How do you compete with the iPhone? Do you ditch the keyboard a-n-d jump onto the Android bandwagon? And become a hardware company? I don't think that is in the cards. RIM wants to continue doing both hardware and software. Well, first, it wants to survive.

Is there room? Is there room in the smartphone space for a Nokia? A Microsoft? A RIM? How do you differentiate? Those are hard questions I don't have answers for.

Another option would be to take RIM's resources and go into something else. Do a fundamental rethink and become a company that produces something else. Or break the company into a hundred different startups.

When Steve Jobs went back to Apple he did not try to win the PC war. He instead created the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. There is always that next big thing.

Related articles

• RIM Planning to License BB10 to Other Manufacturers [Rim]
• RIM looking to cut 3,000 more jobs: report
• RIM and Nokia: On Borrowed Time
• Can RIM follow Apple's Footsteps On The Comeback Trail?
• How to save RIM: 'Pull a reverse Apple'
• RIM denies handing encryption keys to India
• RIM Is Hurting, But It's Not Dead Just Yet
• RIM Looking to License BB10 to Hardware Manufacturers
• RIM to Send Home 3,000 More Employees in August
• What is RIM worth?