The Consumer IC Market:: Dwidgetal Devices

Posting before the weekend..... Before my presentation to SEMI Austin this past Tuesday I was browsing the gadget sites. This wandering included: Engadget, Gizmodo, Slash.org, Russell Beattie's Notebook and Mobitopia. I am getting RSS feeds for all of these via Bloglines. Yeah, I know, too much time spent at these sites results in information overload. With so many sites out there you have to wonder how many people suffer from internet-induced attention deficit disorder (ADD). But back to the point. The primary purpose of these gadget sites is to preview, review and discuss, the latest and greatest electronic gadgetry. In the near term this is a noble and overwhelming cause. Whether the sites survive over the long run remains to be seen. For now, they are in the game. The sites are not the issue though. What I find most interesting is the seemingly endless stream of product flow they have to digest. For our purposes, this product flow should be noted as the primary driver of growth in the Consumer IC market. This category is making a profound influence on the business model of the chip manufacturing community. I sense that the answer to "who will survive and thrive in the electronics food chain?" can be found in this arena. One of my fears is that the answer is charging at us like a mad bull and it will blindside us before we have time to react. Calling it the Consumer IC market is boring. I've decided that from now on I am going to call these items "Dwidgetal Devices" because, these products are, for all intensive purposes, digital widgets. There's a story here and I have not quite got my arms around it. The Widget Maker - the classic B-School case study. Hmmm..... Comments?