Manufacturing the Future: A History of Western Electric

Book Description

Manufacturing the Future: A History of Western Electric is the first full-length history of the Western Electric Company, the manufacturing arm of the Bell System. As a manufacturer in the communications revolutions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Western Electric made new products such as telegraphs, telephones, an early computing machine, radios, radar, and transistors. The book demonstrates, through Western's 1882 acquisition by Bell Telephone, that vertical integration was a lengthy process rather than a single event. It also shows the coming of age of industrial psychology and describes the advent of civil rights in corporate America.

Customer Reviews:

An almost complete history.......2007-06-27

Now that Lucent Technologies is gone, swallowed up by the French Telecom giant, this history of Western Electric could be completed. For now, we'll have to do with this comprehensive edition written when Lucent Technologies still had an apparently bright future. What becomes clear is that Lucent's downfall stems from a series of decisions beginning nearly a century earlier in which the manufacturing unit's interests always took second place to those of the Bell operating companies and AT&T.

On the downside, it's a bit of an "official" history from the point of view of the corporate higher-ups. It would have been interesting to contrast their veiw with those of the regular employees. Still, it's probably the best available history of this important institution.

Great background for understanding the Internet age........1999-10-06

I'm actually an analyst of the telecom industry, so I come to this with a special interest. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend the book for those interested in some real foundations to understand the communications revolution. (and not just sound-byte Internet history). It's a pity that the name Lucent Technologies isn't in the title, because that's the real subject of the book. It's a history of Western Electric, which after a 120 year "pit stop" at AT&T ultimately spun out to become Lucent. The best part is the early chapters where we learn about the competition between the telegraph and Bell's telephone, the coalescing of local telephone companies under Bell's leadership, and ultimately the emergence of AT&T (with Western Electric)as the "Bell System" that most of us grew up with. Don't be put off by the fact that Lucent commissioned the book. It's a throughly documented, balanced, and obviously professional undertaking.

Money from Thin Air: The Story of Craig McCaw, the Visionary who Invented the Cell Phone Industry, and His Next Billion-Dollar Idea

Average customer rating:

A good story, but you never get close enough to McCaw
Sleeper in Seattle
Reads fast
Boring...
The Boring Billionaire

Money from Thin Air: The Story of Craig McCaw, the Visionary who Invented the Cell Phone Industry, and His Next Billion-Dollar Idea
O. Casey Corr
Manufacturer: Crown Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0812926978
Release Date: 2000-06-13

Amazon.com

"With cellular telephony... we saw an enormous gap between what was and what should be. I mean, [the fixed phone system] makes absolutely no sense. It is machines dominating human beings. The idea that people went to a small cubicle, a six-by-ten office, and sat there all day at the end of a six-foot cord, was anathema to me" So says Craig McCaw, who staked what once amounted to $3.5 million dollars of long-term debt on the idea that in the not-too-distant future, America would be ready to cut that six-foot-cord... and whose epic risk paid off big in 1994 when AT&T bought for $12.6 billion the nationwide cellular-phone empire McCaw had for the past decade stealthily patched together, leveraged buyout by leveraged buyout.

His story is told here by O. Casey Corr, who covers business and technology for The Seattle Times. Corr starts with the 1969 death of McCaw's broadcasting-tycoon father, whereupon Craig and his superrich Seattle family realize they are actually flat broke. At once risk-loving and shrewd, young Craig starts buying one small cable outfit after another in the Pacific Northwest as the fledgling industry picks up steam through the 1970s. But sensing the real wave of the future is the wireless phone, McCaw seizes on the FCC's mid-1980s decision to jettison its Byzantine application process for wireless regional franchises in favor of a lottery system--a move that transformed wireless speculation from a sleepy insider's game dominated by AT&T into a nationwide feeding frenzy, all at a time when cell phones and their transmission were still wildly expensive and their mass popularity more than a decade away. Leveraging one high-risk purchase against the next, eventually with the help of junk-bond king Michael Milken, McCaw gobbles up most of the infant markets. But he's smart enough to dodge his debt by selling off the entire thing to AT&T in 1994 for a dazzling $12.6 billion. He has since moved on to future-minded projects such as Teledesic, his $9 billion partnership with Bill Gates, Boeing, and Motorola to create what the book calls "an Internet in the sky, a satellite network that provides fast, cheap Internet access worldwide."

The dissolution and triumphant reconstruction of the McCaw family fortune is an intricate tale of shrewdly choreographed deals, and Corr tells it well, in an assured, crystal-clear and tautly paced entrepreneurial narrative. That said, Money from Thin Air does a better job of dissecting the technical minutiae of McCaw's empire-building than it does at dramatizing or interpreting the personalities or psyches of its main players, foremost McCaw. Corr tries hard to paint McCaw as another of those quirky, New Economy, redwood forest visionaries à la Bill Gates, full of complexities. But Corr fails at making much of a vivid character of McCraw or hitting the essence of what drives him to take such vertiginous risks. Perhaps that has to do with the one quality in his subject he seems to nail--McCaw's seeming desire to be as invisible (or, many of his employees would say, inaccessible) as possible. By Corr's own admission, McCaw agreed to all of two interviews for this book before he got bored and politely waved Corr away. You may not get caught up in the characters of Money from Thin Air, but you'll keenly follow McCaw as he profits his way across the frontier of an emerging telecommunications market. --Timothy Murphy

Book Description

From Jay Gould to John D. Rockefeller to Bill Gates, the titans who change the world have set themselves apart by seizing the high ground before anyone else even knew it existed. Gutsy, shrewd, and ruthless, they were, above all, visionaries who saw whole new industries where others saw only chaos. Today, another visionary is seizing control of the vast new world of telecommunications, an elusive entrepreneur named Craig McCaw. Money from Thin Air is the story of how he created a new industry literally from thin air, and how he will do it again.

Journalist O. Casey Corr vividly portrays here for the first time how McCaw created a cellular communications empire from the disarray of his father's failed cable business and went on to sell it to AT&T in 1993 for a stunning $12.6 billion. And he shows how McCaw is now creating another new industry that could dwarf the accomplishments of Gates and Rockefeller put together, an "Internet in the Sky" that will provide high-speed data access to any point in the world. Most of all, Corr captures the heart of a new kind of executive -- mercurial, brilliant, extremely flexible, always entreprenurial -- who is changing the way business works forever.
A Leadership Style for the Twenty-first Century: McCaw's radically different approach to management--based on hard-nosed negotiation, shrewd borrowing, and a rare willingness to change business plans on a dime--is the new model for anyone who wants to survive, let alone thrive, in the new economy. This book shows how McCaw's unique management style evolved by instinct and from periods of intense personal reflection and self-scrutiny.
Insight into the Emerging New Media Landscape: Today, the telecom world is in turmoil. Giant companies are vulnerable because of their entrenchment in old technology and high cost. So they merge; bigger must be better. At a different level, start-ups tap new pools of capital and maneuver to exploit opportunities created by stumbling giants and collapsing regulation. Increasingly, it's a game for the nimble and the daring. The telecommunications world has come around to Craig McCaw's way of business.
An Amazing Life: Rarely does a family make and remake a fortune. Craig McCaw's father literally ran his multimillion-dollar radio and television business out of his hat, and when he died suddenly at an early age, the family's bank declared the estate insolvent. McCaw, then only twenty years old, rejected the advice of more experienced businessmen and began investing the money he got from his father's life insurance in a series of businesses most thought worthless, or at best, extremely risky. His career since then has been a series of increasingly large-scale ventures based on a unique personal vision of an emerging human society in which all of us will be freed by technology.
The Next Big Thing: McCaw made one fortune in cable TV and another in cellular telephones. Now he's building a telecommunications empire of staggering potential through a collection of companies he controls: Teledesic, a satellite partnership with Microsoft's Bill Gates that is building a global "Internet in the Sky"; Nextlink, a company positioning itself to rival the Baby Bells with its own vast network of fiber-optic cable and switching systems; CablePlus, a company that provides voice service, Internet access, and TV signals through coaxial cable; and Nextel, an international wireless-telephone company with an expanding role in data services. Each company alone is breathtaking in its ambition, hunger for capital, and risk-taking management style. Together, they provide a glimpse at the depth of McCaw's ambition: one company capable of providing high-speed data access to any point in the world.

Odd, mysterious, yet public-spirited, McCaw is a technological visionary who sees profit where others see thin air. His amazing, ongoing story is required reading for anyone wanting to understand what it takes to build an industry from scratch -- twice.

Customer Reviews:

A good story, but you never get close enough to McCaw.......2004-03-11

As Corr tells it, McCaw has always operated by a unique, hands off managerial style, often absent from key negotiations and busy flying his plane and paddling his kayak through British Columbia. For an author of a business biography, such a subject presents a real problem, because it makes it virtually impossible to paint a nuanced, subtle, in depth profile of the subject, and Corr's book suffers from this flaw. Michael Lewis had the same problem with Jim Clark in "The New New Thing," and I think there are few biographers of sufficient skill to really help us understand a mercurial figure like McCaw.

That said, the book is still worthwhile, especially for the excellent early history of the cable and cellular phone industries. The explosive growth, relentless deal making, constant capital shortages, and sudden, inexplicable abandonment by the financial community might ring a chord with anyone who has lived through the last five years. Revolutions in the communications business seem to follow such a hype-hysteria-despair-rebuild path, and today's investors and entrepreneurs can learn a lot by studying the early history of these industries. For this purpose, Corr's book is a worthy addition to a business person's library.

Sleeper in Seattle.......2003-08-24

This book provides limited facts that are not already available in the newspaper. The writing style is monotone and does not compel the reader - definitely not something that will keep me up at night reading.

Reads fast.......2001-08-03

Very insightful, quick reading book about one of the nation's most unique business leaders, a real character. There should be a sequel about McCaw handling the big shakeout in telecom and about his pet project, saving Keiko the whale. I hope Corr does another book.

Boring..........2001-06-09

The long title first struck me very impressively. However, as I went on reading the book, I find it frustrating and uninteresting. It's hard to write a book with a boring life (no offense, Mr. McCaws). But rather than diving into how the McCaws from not a nerd, a technologist, or futurist becomes successful, the author tries really hard (but unsuccessful) to make McCaws as a great visionary. If you look at the reference section in the book, you will see that most materials for this book came from newspaper. The author has to admit in his book that McCaws didn't spend much time to be interviewed either. Besides, some readers might find the book funny and silly in a technical point of view. Well, I have a feeling that the author doesn't have much insights on the wireless industry. I just read "AOL.COM" before reading this book. And in comparision, this book is really a frustration even though I really want to know more about McCaws, a local well-known family.

The Boring Billionaire.......2000-12-18

This book is obviously the story of Craig McCaw and how he made his fortune in the cellular phone market. The book does a good job of summarizing Craig's life from a family tragedy that shaped his business life, to his strong belief in cellular communication and how that made him a millionaire.

The good news/bad news is that he eschews the fame and glory of a typical egomaniac like Donald Trump. It's great from a role model standpoint but since McCaw is so protective of his privacy and is around so few people, it was difficult to write a glamorous tale of an unglamorous life. Particularly since there is no mention of McCaw ever being interviewed by the author. Therefore, you are left with the history of cellular phone development in America coupled with mention of McCaw's unique management style.

Book Description

GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) provides a service to more than 500 million users throughout 168 countries worldwide. It is the world market leader serving 69 0f all mobile digital users and is currently evolving into UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System).

By describing the critical decisions and the phases of the development this key text explains how the GSM initiative became a success in Europe and how it evolved to the global mobile communication system. Initially the strategy and technical specifications were agreed for Europe and the subsequent evolution to a global solution was achieved by incorporating all non-European requirements and by inviting all committed parties worldwide to participate. The process started in 1982 and the first GSM networks went into commercial service in 1992. The first UMTS networks are expected in 2002 and the fourth generation discussions have begun.

Presents a complete technical history of the development of GSM and the early evolution to UMTS
Clarifies the creation of the initial GSM second generation system in CEPT GSM, the evolution to a generation 2.5 system in ETSI SMG and the evolution to the Third Generation (UMTS) in ETSI SMG and 3GPP
Covers all of the services and system features together with the working methods and organisational aspects

GSM and UMTS provides an interesting and informative read and will appeal to everyone involved in the mobile communications market needing to know how GSM and UMTS technologies evolved.

The accompanying CD-ROM provides nearly 500 reference documents including reports of all standardisation plenary meetings, strategy documents, key decisions, the GSM Memorandum of Understanding and the report of the UMTS Task Force.

Amazon.com

America is just waking up to the vast potential of the wireless Web. In Japan, nearly a third of the population already works, plays, and shops with wireless, continuously connected to a universe of data, services, and communities. The force responsible is a young company with a name that means "anywhere" in Japanese: DoCoMo. Another case study that examines a specific corporation for management lessons it can share with others, DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami takes a riveting look at the world's second-largest mobile phone service that has, after only two years, a customer base as big as AOL's. Don't think of this book as an apology for the languishing telecom industry. Instead, it's an inside look at how creativity and innovation were nurtured at one of the world's stodgiest companies--Nippon Telephone and Telegraph--and how a small team of committed visionaries never said "Never" and created DoCoMo's extraordinarily popular I-mode technology.

For those who've read of the importance of "intrapreneurship" in corporations, here is a real-life exploration of that principle in action. Noted business strategists John Beck (The Attention Economy) and Mitchell Wade give us story upon story of the dynamic personalities behind I-mode, from NTT Chairman Kouji Ohboshi--who saw DoCoMo through a series of crises that would have meant early death for most U.S. startups--to CEO Keiji Tachikawa, whose post-WWII childhood gave him a keen grasp of the economics of disparity.

With chapter headings like "People-People Who Need People" and "Passion Is Destiny," this book sends the strong message that every successful business model depends so heavily on the human factor--a point that seems lost in the venture-capital-dominated model of the West. With lessons for all business leaders, in any industry, this book stands as a testament to the pivotal role of conviction, integrity, and personal passion in business success. --Charles Decker

Book Description

Almost a quarter century after their core management principles put them in nearly unassailable positions of market dominance, Japanese firms like Toyota, Sony, and Honda are still the standards to which other corporations aspire. Today, Japan's NTT DoCoMo is on the verge of attaining equal stature. DoCoMo is the world's second-largest mobile phone operator and, with its I-mode system, the first to roll out real, viable third-generation applications like Internet-ready mobile phones. This quantum leap in technology will very soon change the way we all send and receive information, from e-mail, paging, and voice to graphic business applications and entertainment. But DoCoMo's success came not as a result of following the hard-and-fast models of its illustrious predecessors. In fact, it is much more a reflection of the ability of DoCoMo's management to carve out a creative niche within the confines of legendarily traditional Nippon Telephone and Telegraph.

Beck (co-author, The Attention Economy) and Accenture senior consultant Wade examine the enormous risks that DoCoMo took in pursuing a "bleeding edge" technology which analysts thought was superfluous, and how their daring almost single-handedly brought an entire global market into existence. It is this extraordinary story and the simple, powerful management themes ingrained in it that will drive companies the world over to emulate DoCoMo as they did the previous giants of Japanese industry.

Customer Reviews:

simply the worst.......2005-10-01

Chapter one of this pathetic book begins by informing us that "Business cases aren't romance novels. Things begin, and end, with the numbers". Not so this book. As well as seemingly endless diversions into such eclectic themes as post war land reform in Japan, General MacArthur's victorious cavalcade into Tokyo, hitch hiking in New England, some unfathomable nonsense about the "mystic Southwest" of the United States, a reference to Mary Poppins, a couple of paragraphs on Bruce Springsteen, the problems of mowing lawns in Utah, the relatively high mortality rates of upper class Britons during both world wars, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the usual sociological drivel of upwardly pointing nails getting hammered down in Japan, some buzz words from complexity theory, some tips on putting golf balls and interminable pages of insipid tips on how to turn your (non Docomo related) work into fun, we are given six shallow chapters respectively titled Love, Inequality, Impatience, Luck, Fun and Strength with a further appendix called Intimacy and M-Commerce. That is followed by a mercifully short interview with Docomo President Kouji Ohboshi, which, because it was originally carried in 1996, is, like the entire book, totally irrelevant to the current market conditions Docomo faces.
Although the book's blurb claims the authors had unprecedented access to Docomo's top executives, there is no evidence of that in this over priced book. We are, however, told that Ohboshi "looks like a conventional Japanese executive. He is tall". We are also told that he has the style of a cockroach, meaning that he is impatient and hurries around a lot. Because cockroaches tend to get stamped on, it is a dangerous and, at best, very silly metaphor to describe a dynamic CEO of a thriving company.
It is almost as silly as the 20 or so pages given to the digital experiences of Yasuko Sato who, we are told, had to overcome the sad fact that "Mama and Papa Sato lovingly, relentlessly instilled good old-fashioned analog values in their daughter." Although Mama and Papa Hayes did the same, I have used mobile phones in the jungles of the Golden Triangle and the Andes Mountains as well as in a fishing trawler 300 miles off the coast of Iceland. Talking about the wonders of i-mode or mobile phones in the tones Mitch and John (as they annoyingly call themselves throughout the book) is like talking of the wonders of black and white TV; they are old news.
To impress on us how successful Docomo has been, we are supposed to be amazed that its headquarters are in "a skyscraper so large that each elevator holds sixty-three people. Sixty-three! In just one elevator!" As if that was not penance enough for us to bear, the authors appeal to our vanity by telling us that we are the new "cosmopolitan, global kind of thinker" because we are reading a "whole book" on Docomo.
Instead of giving us a "whole book" on Docomo, all they serve us up is the most shameless padding that would make the laziest high school student blush. Only two paragraphs after mentioning "those alphabet soup economics equations that make so little sense to most of us", we read "Okay, enough about boring economic theories" and we are back to the problems of mowing the lawns of Utah.
Technical details are also, we are told on page 127, "perennially boring" even though they are vital to understand Docomo's short history as well as its prospects for future success. The mobile telephony industry Docomo finds itself in is a young industry, one that will mature in time just as wireless, television and the Internet did before it. Until that happens, the industry's many intangibles will complicate our best efforts to predict the industry's future trends. Instead of trying to identify those intangibles, the authors let us know that "what we can tell you, after years in think thanks and universities and high-powered consulting firms" is that luck is paramount in a successful business.
This is easily the worst business book I have ever read, let alone reviewed.

Why the Japanese are so in love with Technology........2005-03-20

I've been looking for literature that explores why Japan is so technology obsessive, they have to have the latest of everything and feel utterly out of touch if they dont. Technology is fashion.

Having lived there a year i instantly recognised the name 'DoCoMo' and thought it was the perfect forum to analyse this exact phenomena, DoCoMo is the mother of all technology companies over there and really has become a part of the way of life there.

This book separates into chapters based on emotion, an odd idea, but one that works quite well. For me the Love and Fun chapters accurately depict the passion the Japanese have for technology and how DoCoMo capitalized on that.

However I wasn't looking at this book as an example of a business model. I skipped most of the facts and figures, though they are easy to read and very relevant. People who are skepical of this books practical use offering a business model that has a totally different approach, probably havent spent enough time in Japan to see how successfully DoCoMo has been. I believe this may be the future of the business model. But essentially i think this book would fit much better in the 'Technologies Influence On Society' section of the bookshelf.

Those who are researching technology as part of society are the ones who will really get a kick out of this book, there are so many interviews with developers, users, fanatics and novices, it is a feast of information that explains just why the Japanese are atleast a year ahead in the Mobile Industry. And why the Japanese are so passionate about their gadgets.

Not bad. Not amazing.......2004-11-07

I picked up this book with the hope that it would share some insight into why i-mode was such a big success. It did that only.

This is an extremely 'business/management' style of book. Full of hullabaloo, simple to read and gets somewhat preachy at times.

However I did enjoy reading it, although I sometimes doubt validity of some speculations made (Such as Singapore eradicating paper and coin based money entirely by the year 2008).

I'll give it 3 stars because it did give me the answer I was looking for but it wasn't a life changing experience reading it. Sorry.

Packed with important business insights.......2003-03-06

How has Japan's NTT DooMo become as big as AOL's customer base - five times as fast? This is Japan's mobile phone service, who grew to second-largest in the world in just to years. Insights into industry secrets, Japanese business, the wireless and computer worlds like make DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force a book difficult to easily categorize, but packed with important business insights. Highly recommended for all readers.

Not really about about DoCoMo.......2003-02-16

This book doesn't give a clear understanding of DoCoMo and it's mechanisms.
It's more of an unctious eulogy about people at Do-Co-Mo and the enterprise itself.
What we learn: Keichi Tachikawa had a keen sense of inequality, former Chairman Ohkochi is impatient, impatient etc., Keichi Enoki seems to be the lucky guy.
This is a latter day celebration of a Japanese enterprise. The rendering of the story could have been influenced heavily by the style of a communist storyteller, writing a biography of communist saint Breshnew or marshal Shukow.

Few facts. Tons of incense. Sprinklings of modern management thought.

Not devoid of facts, but these are incoherently interspersed into a rambling storytelling about all and everything.
This book did waste my time and continuous factless ramblings made me feel angry at times.

Average customer rating:
A History of engineering and science in the Bell System : transmission technology (1925-1975)
AT & T Bell Laboratories , and American Telephone & Telegraph Company
Manufacturer: AT&T Bell Laboratories
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0932764088

Average customer rating:

A staggeringly in-depth study of a fascinating company

NOKIA -- More Cameras than KODAK in the World....

Heavy book and heavy reading

The revolution of Nokia's ideas

a good lesson for businessmen

The Nokia Revolution : The Story of an Extraordinary Company That Transformed an Industry
Dan Steinbock
Manufacturer: Amer Management Assn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Nokia: The Inside Story

The Mobile Revolution: The Making of Mobile Services Worldwide

The Qualcomm Equation: How a Fledgling Telecom Company Forged a New Path to Big Profits and Market

Wireless Horizon

Mobile Usability: How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone

ASIN: 081440636X

Book Description

Tucked away in one of Europe's most far-flung corners, the Finnish Nokia Corporation has emerged in the past decade from near-obscurity to become a global powerhouse in mobile communications and a leader in the development of third-generation wireless services.

How did they do it? How did the 140-year-old company manage to survive the political upheavals of its age? What re-creations did the company undergo as it moved from forest-industry enterprise to European technology conglomerate to global cellular phone maker--and now, to its latest incarnation, as a mobile Internet vendor?

The Nokia Revolution probes behind the company's official, often enigmatic veneer to uncover how Nokia operates, how its chief executives think, and how it listens to the pulse of the market. As such, it is the first strategic study of this extraordinary company, focusing on the way Nokia has built its existing capabilities into competitive advantages.

The book probes far beyond the breezy articles and lightweight press release recyclings. It concentrates instead on the company's extraordinary historical evolution, the creation of its global focus strategy, and the innovations that are preparing Nokia for a mobile information society.

The Nokia Revolution transcends the immediacy of a single company or industry profile. It offers keen insights into what it's like to compete in a fast-cycle, cutthroat, volatile environment. And it offers compelling lessons for both established industry leaders who need to sustain and renew their marketplace dominance and upstarts seeking to topple the giants.

Customer Reviews:

A staggeringly in-depth study of a fascinating company.......2006-03-04

There is no doubt that Nokia has grown from a small Finnish firm into the worldwide leader in cellular and mobile communication technology. How did the firm accomplish this revolution? In this book, Dan, Steinbock, answers this question by tracing the history of Nokia. Looking at the steps Nokia took, including the missteps, the author accurately traces both huge successes, and mistakes. More importantly the author shows how Nokia learned from its mistakes and came back from each misstep stronger. The author hits on some key factors that make Nokia such a strong firm:

· Strategic Intent. In an ever changing market, learn how Nokia took some early missteps. These missteps made Nokia stronger because in 1992 these missteps forced Nokia to move toward process-based management. It used this style to successfully transfer a strategic intent that would motivate every employee.
· Global Focus. Nokia's leadership recognized that in this new environment, the ability to segment markets and target niche segments within those markets was critical to success. In order to compete, Nokia would need to focus globally.
· Strategic Market-Making. With the dynamic market of cellular technology, Nokia's executive board managed to discover and implement a strategy that delivered success.
· Focus on People. Nokia treated its Human Resource management as a strategic issue. Nokia focused on utilizing a drive to achieve customer satisfaction, a respect for the individual, a willingness to achieve and belief in continuous learning, and by encouraging sharing of information and responsibility.
· Global R&D. Nokia spends less than its rivals on R&D. What there efforts lack in funding, they make up for with an efficient system to leverage and exploit new knowledge. Nokia has been active in both upstream (Nokia) and downstream (people-service related factors) innovation.

NOKIA -- More Cameras than KODAK in the World...........2005-03-10

Read this book because Nokia is not just a cell phone producer but also a leader in R&D and interface design and yes, they now sell more cameras than Kodak in the world. I should know because I write about this field for imediaconnection.com and this is a book that is definitely on my shelf. Hard to understand how this company not only influenced a country --but also a generation and a world of new media and technology. TV2Go--, games, 3G and more -- it's all on the horizon-- the surf is about to roar in-- make sure you're prepared for the next generation of devices, handhelds and mobile. read this book.

Heavy book and heavy reading.......2005-01-14

The book is very well written and gives a nice detailed background of Nokia. The book is however very hard to read since you have to look acronyms up and all the time divert your attention from the text too look at the many graphs. It is not a smooth read but the content of the book is very good and well documented.

Cornelius SAMOHI

The revolution of Nokia's ideas.......2003-12-15

This is an inspiring story in an inspiring book. Steinbock told us how Nokia prepared their revolution, how Nokia finally dominates the world of cellular market. To some extend, Nokia was brought Finland into the world economic map. If you want to know the secret of Nokia success, maybe this book could be one of the great sources to do so.

a good lesson for businessmen.......2002-10-21

Nokia Revolution has such a detailed history of this famous cell phone company from its very beginning of a wood pulp factory to the leading mobile and internet company now, that it taught me a lot more about how a business really works than how a successful company looks. Nokia, according to my poor knowledge before, is merely a famous company whose cell phones are said to be the most durable product that won't be broken even if you drop it a thousand times to the ground. This book makes me think much deeper into the struggle the company went through to get this kind of fabulous quality and services to satisfy customers' needs.

Old-time Telephones!: Design, History, And Restoration

Average customer rating:

A Must Have for All Telephone Collectors
Old-time Telephones
Improve the Quality of your Telephoning, Throw away your cell
A Comprehensive Guide For Beginner Or Expert
A Valuable Reference of Telephone Technical Information

Old-time Telephones!: Design, History, And Restoration
Ralph O. Meyer
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0764322826

Book Description

Over 120 black and white photos and 175 patent drawing, charts, diagrams, and schematics trace a century's development of telephones, from Alexander Graham Bell's first phone of 1876 to Trimline models from Western Electric. This valuable reference also provides technical information about their electrical circuitry and electrical measurements required to successfully repair, restore, and maintain a collection. Also included are a bibliography, an index, and a price guide for the telephones displayed. This reference is essential for every serious telephone collector, dealer, and restorer.

Customer Reviews:

A Must Have for All Telephone Collectors.......2007-07-23

If you don't want just to collect antique telephones but also understand how they work, this book is the source for almost all your answers. Very detailed descriptions, very nice schematics and pictures.

Old-time Telephones.......2006-07-10

Very informative book: for the collector, restorer and even the technician. Probably the best technical information widely available on the development of the US Public Telephone system subscriber instruments from turn-of-the-century local battery-magneto to the Princess and Trimlines. Covers development, design and even touches on the corporate thinking which influenced this. Keeps the interest of the engineer but not so technical that the amateur shouldn't be able to follow it too. While the emphasis is on Bell phones, the other major competitor's equivalents are covered as well.

Improve the Quality of your Telephoning, Throw away your cell.......2006-03-16

I fell in love with old telephones when I bought my first oak wall telephone at an uncle's farm sale in S/E Minnesota way back in 1967. It didn't make any difference to me that it didn't work ... I just liked oak. I bought more wall phones, oak, then walnut and even one with a cherrywood case. The house got filled up with phones that were as much as 5 feet tall. I started collecting desk telephones and candlestick telephones instead. Very few of them worked but that didn't make any difference ... it was a history thing. Besides, I had no training in telephony and there weren't any books on the subject anyway.
And back then most folks, including me, were scared to death of Ma Bell's "Telephone Police."
But now Dr. Meyer's book is out ... I already knew the history of most of my phones but now with the information in Dr. Meyer's book I can actually make some of those old timers work again. If you are a newcomer to the telephone collecting hobby, you have a tremendous advantage over me ... it took me 40 years to learn the history of the telephone. You can buy Dr. Meyer's book, learn the history of the telephone in one weekend and at the same time have the technical information provided to you that will enable you to put grandpa's phone back on line again. The telephones from the 40s, 50s and 60s were the best ever made.
Put your offshore throwaway phone in the drawer ... use Old-Time Telephones as a guide to hook up grandpa's Western Electric 302 or 500 set, or a comparable A/E, Stromberg or Kellogg phone ... put a good phone in service in your house.
BTW ... I don't recall that Dr. Meyer's book gives instructions on the use of a rotary dial. You and your kids will have to figure out on your own how to do that.

A Comprehensive Guide For Beginner Or Expert.......2006-01-16

I have worked with old telephones for more than 40 years, and the repair and restoration of them is part of my livelihood. I can state, with authority, that Ralph Meyer has brought together everything a person needs to know about old telephone theory, repair, restoration, and history. I highly recommend Old Time Telephones! to beginners and seasoned collectors or technicians who need an indispensable reference source. Dr. Meyer's book sets the standard for old telephone reference material.

A Valuable Reference of Telephone Technical Information .......2006-01-09

I bought Dr. Meyer's first book, Old-Time Telephones, fifteen years ago. It was a great reference on the technical workings of the telephone concepts from the early years. Dr. Meyers out does himself with his Second edition of Old-Time Telephones. He has expanded the information provided in the first reference and added much new data in twenty-two chapters. Including high quality print, pictures, drawings, etc. of circuits, transmitters, receivers, induction coils and wiring schematics. At first glance you will recognize the dedication and time Dr. Meyers has contributed to this reference. He explains the concepts and early developments of the ninetieth century pioneers who developed telegraph systems prior to the invention of the telephone. Meyers explains the experiments of Bell, Gray and others who developed and invented telephone communication, used for more that a century. He has dissected and compares telephone circuits of major manufactures of the last century up to and including the present times. Dr Meyers has written all this in simple language anyone can understand. Old Time Telephones 2nd Edition has received some great reviews from numerous telephone collectors who have worked in the industry and collected telephones, more than thirty years. This book is a valuable reference of technical information for anyone interested in telephone communications past and present. Enjoy!!

Rick Saint, Houston Texas

America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940

Average customer rating:

Technology in the modern age
Has insights about adoption of phones & technology generally

America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940
Claude S. Fischer
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520086473

Book Description

The telephone looms large in our lives, as ever present in modern societies as cars and television. Claude Fischer presents the first social history of this vital but little-studied technology--how we encountered, tested, and ultimately embraced it with enthusiasm. Using telephone ads, oral histories, telephone industry correspondence, and statistical data, Fischer's work is a colorful exploration of how, when, and why Americans started communicating in this radically new manner.
Studying three California communities, Fischer uncovers how the telephone became integrated into the private worlds and community activities of average Americans in the first decades of this century. Women were especially avid in their use, a phenomenon which the industry first vigorously discouraged and then later wholeheartedly promoted. Again and again Fischer finds that the telephone supported a wide-ranging network of social relations and played a crucial role in community life, especially for women, from organizing children's relationships and church activities to alleviating the loneliness and boredom of rural life.
Deftly written and meticulously researched, America Calling adds an important new chapter to the social history of our nation and illuminates a fundamental aspect of cultural modernism that is integral to contemporary life.

Customer Reviews:

Technology in the modern age.......2000-09-03

By using the telephone as a case study, Fischer examines the role of technology as an instrument in modern life. The first chapter provides a terrific overview of the academic literature on technology, though given the time span covered by the book, it does not address the Internet. The book is also unusual in that it actually relies on data when making claims about the telephone and the world that emerged around it.

Has insights about adoption of phones & technology generally.......2000-07-15

America Calling is, as its subtitle says, a social history of the adoption of the telephone from its invention in the 1870s until the 1940s, when it had become widely, but not universally used in the U.S. It is a sociological account of the attitudes held by the people who sold the telephone as much as those who used it. It contrasts the adoption of the phone with that of the automobile, which was introduced during about the same time period and was adopted more quickly. It uses a wide and creative set of data, including statistics of telephone use, telephone company reports, local newspaper stories, letters written at the time, interviews with people who grew up before telephones were commonplace, newspaper advertisements (noting when telephone numbers were printed as part of an ad), and even song lyrics of the time. After giving a national view of telephone adoption, Fischer fills out the story with a more detailed study of three towns in the San Francisco area; one mostly blue collar, one mixed, and one white collar.

Some of the more interesting findings in the book include:

- Farmers were among those most interested in using the phone and were willing to pay more for service, and yet AT&T was slow to recognize their need or the profit potential. AT&T did tended not to market to them, or to be willing to extend lines out to rural communities. - There was a brief period of competition, before the government sanctioned the AT&T monopoly, which greatly increased the use of the phone and reduced the costs. - It was not a trivial task to sell telephones to people. The phone company worked hard to contrive situations when a phone might be useful. Most people (especially in cities) had a way to send messages, so it was seen as a luxury.

- The notion of using the telephone for social conversation was looked down upon for a long time, and was rarely played up in sales pitches. Partially because of the "party line," where a whole community shared a single line, it was considered "frivolous" to use the telephone for anything other than short calls to conduct business or make arrangements. This attitude was also shared by the telephone company itself, which tended to encourage its use only for important matters.

- The adoption of the automobile, a much more costly investment, was must faster than that of telephones. People seemed to find them more useful, but also didn't look down upon the idea of buying them purely for pleasure. Even though the use of automobiles did infringe on others (horses spooked around cars and they tore up the roads), their use was more easily accepted than social conversation on the telephone.

- Women were the main customers of the telephone and were most likely to use them for social conversation.

I found this book to be well written and full of interesting information about the adoption of the telephone. I was surprised that it was more of an academic book than I'd expected. Based on the cover, I was expecting it to be oriented more toward the general public. Having adjusted to that, I found I trusted the figures Fischer gave and found him to be appropriately conservative about making inferences based on incomplete data. I also liked how Fischer compared the telephone to the automobile, which helped tease out some of the many possible factors affection adoption, such as income, region, and the effects of World War I and the Depression.

I'm not sure if this is a flaw in the book or whether the data just aren't available, but I was disapointed that I didn't learn more about the "social rules" about using the phone. Since I am interested in the adoption of the cell phone and the judgments people make about others who use them (especially in public places), I was curious to learn whether there were parallels in how people treated those who used the early telephones. Aside from learning that people looked down on those who chatted for social reasons, there was little information about how people used the telephone in the home (what room it was kept in, whether there were understandings about giving that person privacy, etc.), how they managed party lines, whether it was okay to call someone when they were visiting someone else's home, whether people made judgments about others based on their phone usage, and so on. However, there was an interesting segment on the evolving etiquette of using the phone to extend and/or respond to invitations. Still, that was just a personal goal for reading this book. I think most people would find the book informative and interesting.

Average customer rating:

A quick read for those in the patent field.

Technology History Revisited

The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876: The Elisha Gray-Alexander Bell Controversy and Its Many Players
A. Edward Evenson
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Gray Matter : The Forgotten Story of the Telephone

ASIN: 0786408839

Customer Reviews:

A quick read for those in the patent field........2003-11-29

This book will be a quick read for those in the patent field. After one or two sittings, you'll discover that you've effortlessly reached page one hundred. Although the author does not reveal his credentials or experience, it is clear that he does have some writing experience, as the journey through the pages is a smooth one. The book focuses on details, but also frequently steps back to show you the big picture. For example, there is periodic commentary on the many telegraphic and telephonic machines produced by other inventors around the world, at the time of Bell. Although the footnotes to the first chapter are not inspiring (they include an encyclopedia; scholars would never cite a watered-down tertiary source like an encyclopedia), the sources cited for later chapters are better, e.g., legal depositions. If there could be any improvement in the book, it would be to include step-by-step instructions on how to assemble one or two of the early devices described in the text, e.g., the acidic water device shown on page 96. The author acknowledges Stephen Mican as a helper. Mr. Mican is an experienced patent attorney, having worked on about 40 patents for companies in Milwaukee, Rockford, Chicago, and Rockville, MD, and for the U.S. Navy. Mr. Mican is also an inventor, being listed as the sole inventor of U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,393. One wonders if the book would have been substantially different if it had been written by a historian or by a patent attorney. Readers familiar with patent law will find this book to be filled with intrigue and insights into the history of the USPTO, but other people would probably rather be doing other things with their time.

Technology History Revisited.......2001-12-05

To appreciate the history of technological invention it's important to understand society and the scientific community at the time the inventors lived, as well as the political and industrial forces.

The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876 is a good introduction to understanding science and society at the time Thomas Alva Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and a lot of their contemporary inventors, engineers and scientists changed the world by introducing electric lighting and telecommunicatins to the homes and offices.

The book may appear somewhat biased against Bell and focus mainly on the battle between Bell and Gray. People like Emile Berliner and Edison get only cursory treatment, and Antonio meucci is hardly mentioned. At times the author treats information from newspaper clippings with the same authority as official records. Readers are adviced to check the footnotes.

Customer Reviews:

A MUST READ FOR BILL MCGOWAN FANS.......1999-03-02

This book gives an excellent account of the rise of MCI and the powerful personalities behind its success, most notably Bill McGowan. The material about McGowan and Jack Goeken given here is essential reading for all those interested in a story much more important and moving than that surrounding Microsoft.

Interesting, easy read. Not particularly insightful........1996-01-02

This book gives a rather shallow overview of MCI's rise to power, focusing on the legal battles with AT&T and the regulatory battles with the FCC and local Bells. Kahaner's writing style is simple and direct; he jumps around a lot and introduces characters that seem to have no relevance to the story line. Nevertheless, the book is interesting due to the subject matter, but leaves the reader wishing for more insight and interpretation from the author.

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