I’ve never been in sales. Never “carried a bag”. But I have run sales forces and I have spent a lot of time in marketing, guiding sales forces. Well, herding cats comes to mind, but cats don’t have commission plans. Engineers say sales people are emotional, and ego-driven, but change their commission plans… Read More
Workshop: Embedded Applications and Kernels
Design Automation Conference Workshop on Suite of Embedded Applications and Kernels
In June, the first Suite of Embedded Applications and Kernels, or SEAK, workshop at the 2014 Design Automation Conference in San Francisco introduced a new Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program in the area of embedded system benchmarking… Read More
Product Marketing & the Butterfly Effect
I often feel that product marketing can simultaneously be an underrated and overrated function. More often than not, it suggests product goals, pricing, and positioning. Then the marketing department must defend those positions to both engineering and sales. However, both the engineering and sales departments can claim expertise… Read More
SemiWiki is an Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals!
Why should you be a part of SemiWiki? Two reasons: One, SemiWiki is an excellent semiconductor networking tool. Quite often “who you know” comes into play in your professional life so network-network-network. Two, SemiWiki is all about personal branding. Establish yourself as a person of interest in your chosen field and opportunities… Read More
A Re-look at TI’s Businesses, Strategies & Future
In recent days I’ve seen several long discussions about Texas Instrumentslosing its grip in semiconductor industry when it came out of a business it was strong in, i.e. wireless business. It seems the semiconductor community has not digested the fact that TI, very rightly, came out of the OMAP business at the right time. The smartphone… Read More
Advice for Out-of-towners
You are visiting San Francisco and you have dutifully read your guide book. Let me give you some contrarian advice.
See the Golden Gate Bridge. The best way is not to drive there or get a taxi, but to rent a bicycle (lots of places on that side of the city, try Googling “blazing saddles”) and cycle across the bridge. You can then go down … Read More
Everything You Wanted to Know About the Internet But Were Afraid to Ask
Every year, Mary Meeker produces a huge presentation (140 slides) on important trends in the internet. This year’s came out at the end of last week. It is well worth the time it takes to go through it. Here is the first slide, effectively the table of contents:
- Key Internet Trends
- Status Update: Tech Stocks / Education / Healthcare
Apple is Roaring Back!
Mind you, this post is being written by the same guy who wrote8 Reasons Why I Hate My iPhone 5. I’ve been living with the Samsung S4 for about a year, and am ready to return to the Apple fold. It’s partially that too many, or perhaps the wrong apps running on my phone cause big problems. This manifests itself anywhere from … Read More
SemiWiki Exceeds One Million Users!
SemiWiki was launched on January 1[SUP]st[/SUP] 2011 and according to Google Analytics we have officially exceeded one million users (unique visitors). I really don’t know what to say but, WOW, that is a LOT of people reading SemiWiki articles, wikis, and forums (there are now 13,464 posts on SemiWiki).
According to Alexa.com… Read More
A Brief History of the Apple MacBook Pro
I’m typing this blog today with my trusty Apple MacBook Pro – a 17″ laptop with matte display and 16GB of RAM, but don’t stereotype me as an Apple fanboy because I also own the fantastic Samsung Galaxy Note II phone (aka phablet). Some industry pundits would have us believe that desktops and laptops are going… Read More
PDF Solutions Charts a Course for the Future at Its User Conference and Analyst Day