ITEXPO 2010 Speaker: Will Apple Rule the World?

If ever there was a diehard Apple fan, S. Jay Lawrence, CEO of GigaBeam would take first place. When asked his views on the smartphone market in 2010, Lawrence guaranteed his only device will be Apple and his entire household would be Apple-based by the end of the year.

 

As for HD VoIP, Lawrence believes the market pull will be based on perceived need and value.

 

Lawrence recently spoke with TMCnet’s Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) in an interview provided in full below.

 

Reflecting on 2009, Lawrence noted that GigaBeam was hit hard by the recession, but is excited about the potential of 2010. Asked about his opinion of Obama’s performance in the first year, Lawrence is disappointed with the mounting debt and the left leaning policy. If he were to take this same position, Lawrence would implement aggressive tax reductions for small businesses and tax free status for high tech entrepreneurs for at least two years.

Lawrence also shared his insight on the areas of anticipated market growth in the next few years, which included wireless – in a nutshell. He believes our lives will improve with advanced wireless options as opportunities continue to emerge. Lawrence will discuss many of these opportunities, as well as the cooperation of a wireless and wired world at the ITEXPO (News - Alert) East 2010. As for his outrageous prediction, Lawrence said, “Apple splits and hits 500 before the end of the year.” We’ve got eleven months to watch whether the industry moves in this direction.

 

Their conversation follows:

 

 

I am not an expert on this market but do consider myself to be an aggressive user and reasonably sophisticated in both capability as well as applications. I am also a typical consumer in that I expect things to work and have little patience when they do not. That said, my view is that the Apple platform will rule the day. Today I carry both an iPhone (News - Alert) and a Blackberry; there is no comparison. Based on features, ease of use, device performance I can assure you that my entire household will be Apple-based by the end of 2010.

 

 

From my seat, this will be a function of market pull based on perceived need and value. For example, if you look to HD video as a benchmark, I think if a comparison is made to a sporting event in HD versus standard definition, it becomes quite clear that there is a real value to the experience. Take the product from sports to the evening news and I am not so sure the benefit holds up. Another view is that 30 years ago, we all got our TV signals from bunny ears, today that isn’t even possible. Costs have changed materially, supply of old technology has changed materially, and customer education and sophistication have changed materially. A best guess is that in time, HD audio as it is defined today will become a standard - the timing will be dictated by market interest, costs and potential regulatory drives to reinvent how we use natural resources.

 

 

We were hit pretty hard by the great recession. Our order book was actually about flat year over year with a big push late in the year. The shortage of cash in the economy was the harder issue to deal with. Customers seemed to pay slower across the board, suppliers seemed to demand better payment terms, in the middle is a juggling act. 

 

We are seeing good signs for 2010. Our business is off to a very strong start, we have a solid funnel and new products that are gaining acceptance within our incumbent clientele and across the board. Our marketing efforts have been progressing with our business gaining new clients in new verticals. This is, for our business, part based on the economy and part due to our adding 4 new product lines during the recession which expanded our serviceable market.

 

Well, I haven’t been surprised in so much as I expected a left leaning policy and that is what we are seeing. I am disappointed that we are allowing the country to go so far into debt; the result of this can only be some combination of a weak US Dollar and inflation. I do believe that the President thinks that he is helping but I would have preferred a much lighter stimulus program with tax incentives for small and high technology companies. Offering tax relief to small business is the best way in my mind to create new jobs with the most efficient use of a buck. Unfortunately the government has too many layers to efficiently create jobs in the private sector. In a small business, such as mine only, one person needs to make a case for a hire and if the hire can be afforded and the case is made, it happens. This cycle is also value creating, it can and will perpetuate itself as well.

I would immediately implement aggressive tax reductions - if not elimination - for small business and tax free status for high tech entrepreneurs for at least 2 years. Many of the most creative contributors to our society are in small business or have the guts to start a business. Businesses that succeed create jobs, and high tech companies create higher paying jobs, and real value. High technology also improves our environment and adds real value to education, training; this builds a more skilled and effective workforce which will aide our country in our efforts to lead in areas of innovation, medicine, climate control, renewal energy, improved learning, and so on.

Wireless, wireless and wireless……and I have put my money where my mouth is. Be it LTE (News - Alert), 4G, WiMAX, there are a bundle of new areas of wireless that will have a material impact in how we live our lives and the richness that comes from high technology. From as simple as the Pizza Hut app on the iPhone to streaming HD video, from a surveillance network to a first responder, our lives are going to see increased benefits from wireless technologies.

 

My talk is about the cooperation of the wireless and wired world. I run a fixed wireless business and we have some pretty exciting new technology. I have watched a good many try to argue the competitive cases for wireless or wired or visa versa and I candidly think that it is the wrong argument. What I will be addressing in my talk is the fact that any communications network needs wireless and wire-line solutions to play nice together and that there is a premium in understanding “when” to use “what” tool. Our business 2 years ago had only 1 product and I used to say to folks, “well, if you have only a hammer, every problem seems a nail”. Today we have a complete wireless toolkit and we have partners in the fiber industry. In fact, one of our fiber partners, Allied Fiber (News - Alert), offered that we take over their speaking spot at this conference to deliver this message.

 

The target audience should be a pretty wide group as our topic will matter to professionals such as the IT manager making a single building connection, the CTO/CIO of a WISP, Network Engineer for a college or business campus, Communication professionals in Government and Defense, and communication engineers / executives for 4G applications.

 

 

Apple splits and hits 500 before EOY.