Set Adrift Between Layoff and Revenge

My “forced retirement” wasn’t my first layoff, but it’s the one that stings the most because it came from a company that prided itself on “never doing layoffs.” So I definitely wasn’t looking for that iceberg.

Previous layoffs were easier to handle.  My first layoff was from a startup that completely shut down, so everyone was let go and we were all piled onto the same life raft together, the entire ship lost.  For my next layoff the entire division was cut, so again we all drifted away together, waving to the ship we once sailed, but with lots of company.

This time the layoff was more selective, and everyone – but me – stayed on the big ship sipping cocktails and playing shuffleboard while I sat alone on a raft, watching them recede into their wake.

 

The disappointing part was that no one onboard threw me a life preserver, offered any help.  I am talking about rank-and-file people I partied with at trade-shows, knew about their kids and families - they all just pretended I never existed.  No lifelines. Not even a text.

Maybe it was survivor’s guilt. Maybe they thought helping me would get them tossed overboard too. I’ll probably never know. But I know this: when I was on the ship and someone went overboard, I always reached out.

As I sit adrift on my raft, I see Retirement Island in the distance, and it is an easy navigation to its shore. In the other direction, the periscope of a familiar U-boat cuts through the waves: an old rival, now circling my former ship. I’m tempted to flag it down and join in, to help torpedo the vessel that cast me off.  But the old war no longer interests me, and I know my former enemy will win, with or without me.

So after more than three decades in the trenches, I realize the best revenge is found not in battle, but in a beach chair on Retirement Island, sipping Margaritas, watching from afar as the ship I once served capsizes slowly beneath the waves.

 

Forced Into Early Retirement, and I am not a Government Worker

My boss scheduled a “2025 Planning Meeting” for the second week of January.  I wanted to take it from the car as a conference call, but he wanted a Teams Meeting, so I assumed at the time he needed to show slides.

I called in, and in sitting in a Brady Bunch montage on the Team call was my boss, the CEO, a regional EVP and two HR representatives.  I knew immediately this was a layoff call.

I was magnanimous about it, although it was a chickenshit move to ambush me like that.  I have been laid off before, and the last time my boss gave me a head’s that a layoff-list was being made, that he would try to keep me off it, but he didn’t think he would be successful.  That allowed me to get my ducks in a row and not be ambushed, and I greatly appreciated the gesture.

This time I was treated no better than the junior engineers that also got the axe.  About 10% of the staff was cut, including shutting down all the overseas offices (I ran the US office for a Kraut company).  The 90% rump company remaining in Germany is getting absorbed into the larger parent German company, and this subdivision’s products tabled.

Originally the plan was for the overseas offices to merge over to the parent company as well, but the Germans are getting panicked about their economy and decided to make cuts.  Europeans are not risk takers, and in the end the layoff decision is not surprising as Germany slides further into economic and cultural irrelevance.  The decision all happened before the end of the year and US politics were not a factor any more than the Korea, China and other offices that were shuttered had any influence from their politics.

I was already planning my retirement in 3-4 years, so this move just accelerated those plans.  I told them point blank on the call that “I don’t have to work, I work because I want to,”, which is a 100% true statement.   And while I will certainly miss the cash flow from an emotional standpoint, it isn’t required to maintain my lifestyle.

But I then got the most insulting comment on the call: “We can give you a good reference!”.  Gee, thanks, I am sure there are TONS of jobs waiting in tech for a 50-something business development guy, and your recommendation is going to make all the difference in the world!

My chances of getting another job at a medium-to-large tech company at my age are zero to none.  I just might be able to get into a start-up if I know any of the principles personally, but no one my age is starting companies anymore.  There is an outside chance someone will toss me a consulting bone here or there, but that is the best I can hope.

So realistically my career in tech is over.  I am playing the game of tossing my resume out there and updating my LinkedIn, but by the end of this year I know I will just give up and put “Retired” on my LinkedIn page.

And then what will I do for the next 30 years of my life?  I have pondered that a bit before, and my concern is not money but boredom as I go through these last decades. 

It’s Time for Southwest Airlines to Change

I don’t know anything about the airline industry from a business standpoint, just as a customer that has done heavy travel for most of my career, with over 2 million miles of travel.

There has been a lot of discussion and rumors about Southwest changing its open seating policy, and I think it is time for it to change to match changes in business, and more importantly changes in society.

Back in the mid 1990s I had a year when I flew Southwest every single week for a year.  I was working in Houston for a company that had a big project in Dallas, so every Monday morning I got on the 7am Southwest HOU-DAL shuttle, and usually came back on the reverse shuttle the same afternoon.  That shuttle still runs both directions every hour, and if you get to the airport early you just hop on the earlier flight, get there late just hop on the next one, easy as pie.

Since it is a short flight – 45 minutes wheels up to down – back in the 1990s the afternoon flight had a big ice chest outside the gateway with ICE COLD BEER.  Instead of a stewardess coming down the isle, taking an order, returning with your suds, and you trying to down the beer in the 10 minutes remaining, you just picked up your beer as you got on the plane!  It was awesome!  Of course back then the stewardesses were all young and pretty, wore short-shorts during the hot Texas summers, and everyone on the plane from crew to passengers were basically having a good time.  Those shuttles were 99% businessmen back then (maybe a few women) and very few vacation travelers, kids, or people who normally frequent Greyhound bus terminals.

Alas those fun days are gone.  Today’s Southwest experience always has screaming kids, derelicts and weirdos on every flight.   For some reason, while assigned seating doesn’t mean those people WON’T be seated by you, it seems with the open seating the percentage chance of the person next you being the screaming kid or 300 pound behemoth seems higher.  Maybe since there are no higher price assigned seats like other airlines, there is no subtle caste system that puts better quality people in the economy plus and business sections (and people who seat their undisciplined screaming kids in business class should be shoved out the door without a parachute at 30,000 feet)

What I am saying is the class of people flying has dropped dramatically, but so has the class of the average American.  Besides most Americans becoming fat lazy slobs with tatoos, everyone is self-absorbed and think nothing of playing phone videos without headphones, screaming over the phone, letting their hellion kids disturb everyone around them, blocking aisles in airport throughways, and so on.  With most people in society not fit to be around in close quarters, Southwest should go back to assigned seating and put the bus people at the back of the plane together, like the rest of the airlines.

Southwest also used to be the low-price airline, but I have not seen them beat anyone on price anywhere there is direct competition.  This means I only fly Southwest when there is no alternative, and grit my teeth during boarding as I wonder how overweight and how much of my seat companion I will be in constant contact with over the next 2-3 hours.

 

The Forgotten Employee

For the second time in my career my company has been acquired and being integrated into a much larger organization.  And while the gears of the large company grind to integrate the engineers, technology and roadmap, I have been forgotten until all the tech stuff is done, which will end up being about half a year.  This exact same thing happened to me about eight years ago.

I have a job, and am getting paid full salary and benefits, but I am not given much to do while this is all happening.  I literally have 3-4 emails a day to address, an occasional conference call, then I am done.  Since I work from home I am free to pursue what other interests I might have after about an hour of work.

This might sound great since it sounds like retirement on full salary pension and benefits, but actually it is a bit boring because I am not really retired.   While I have nothing to do it is not like I can take off to Hawaii or go on a two-week cruise and leave my laptop behind; I am tethered to email and a phone to answer the few items that are lobbed my way from time to time, so I can’t fully check out.  The down time does give me a chance to address a few health issues that I have been putting off, pursue a couple of hobbies more seriously, and start seriously planning for “real” retirement.

I do have to go through a variety of “on-line-training” for new BigCo employees.  I also had to attend in person “new employee orientation” at the US headquarters, and it was a bit humorous with me as a middle-aged guy near the end of his career in a company orientation with about a dozen new Gen-Z hires just out of college.  Talk about culture clash, and maybe I will write about that experience.

Supposedly after this interregnum I will become super busy once again with new products to sell from my previous company (now subdivision), a customer book assigned to me, and will back in Sales Mode with both virtual and in-person selling (so back on the road).  The issue then will be if I really want to go back into full work mode and the grind of present-day business travel.

The last time this happened I left the company and went to another start-up (my present company that is being absorbed) after the integration was complete and my down-time was over, but at my age and stage of life I may just go ahead and pull the chute for early “real” retirement this time around.

Bobby Knight Style Employee Motivation

For those of you under a certain age, Bobby Knight was a legendary, controversial, and very winning basketball coach.  He is best known for throwing a chair across a basketball court and getting ejected.  Did the stunt fire up his team?  Damn right it did.  He threw histrionics, got into the face of his players and seemed emotionally unhinged most of the time.

But this style of coaching is a form of play-acting.  The emotions are real and raw, but it is a performance calculated to push a team or the people you are leading to an emotional edge, and from that edge get everyone motivated, or get a different perspective of things.

This style of management and coaching is pretty much dead in the US as it won't really work with snowflakes and the fragile millennials swamping the system.  Today's millennials are all like Peggy here in this clip, who just want a pat on the head.  For those of you not familiar with the show Mad Men, this is Peggy's manager Don going over the emotional edge trying to get Peggy to accept business life as it is, not as a play-date with participation trophies and thank-yous.  But both the lesson and the coaching style are lost on her.

 

 

I'm old enough to have witnessed this style a couple of times.  Back when I had football coaches, I was at a halftime team meeting when the coach hit a wall saying we were messing things up, then pointed into the locker room and said "You're smiling, this isn't funny!".  Everyone froze wondering who was laughing at the coach, then he went totally off the rails ranting on how this was another example of us not taking it seriously, to the point it was sort of scary seeing that much anger.  We were all shaken, full of adrenaline and fired up after that, then went out and kicked butt in the second half.  Later everyone on the team talked about it and we decided no one was smiling - it was all an act to fire everyone up.

I also have seen this technique in the business world, more recently, but with a very powerful CEO of a public tech company, so maybe this style does exist in small pockets very high up in high-performing companies.

In this case I was in a senior meeting with my boss, CEO of a small tech company, and he pretty much started lying about what our company's technology could do.  I sort of sat there sort of quietly gasping, but this other CEO knew bullshit when he heard it and started leading my CEO down a path of questioning, and with each bullshit answer this CEO kept going louder and louder with each succeeding question until he was yelling at the top of his lungs.  I did not see this a true anger, but actually thought this guy was actually trying to help my CEO by going through an object lesson, a sort of play-acting.

But my CEO wasn't getting it, not because he was a snowflake and upset, but because he was literally oblivious to the lesson.  He basically shrugged it off and didn't take anything away from the encounter as if lying about tech is just what you did and if people got angry, so what.

So like Don is finding in this clip, this is an old technique that maybe has a very limited place in sports coaching, but less and less effective in the business world.

WTH is TAM, SAM, SOM?

This is a re-post from waaay back in 2005, which was my most popular post ever.  Google search picked up on it, and I would get occasional emails from students asking more questions.

 So posted here again, although my guess with almost 20 years more information on the web there are a lot of other places to find this info, so doubt it will get traffic today.

Professor Michael Porter is still alive today at 77.

--------------------------

From the mailbag: Would you recommend a good book or two on the TAM/SAM/SOM/3C business planning process?

People make fun of scientists and engineers with their use of acronyms, but marketing has plenty of its own, and someone not in marketing may wonder what the hell they mean.

To answer the question, most marketing books today typically try to push a "new" concept - guerilla marketing, viral marketing, etc. - rather than this basic stuff, so I'll give a quick run down on these items using some real-world examples before getting to a recommendation.

Scenario - You market a widget for the cellphone camera market. Your widget is only used in phones that have cameras embedded in them.

TAM - Total Available Market - In this example this would be the total cellphone market.

SAM - Served Available Market - This would be cellphones with cameras since your product is only used in them.

So the first question, is why distinguish between TAM and SAM, especially since you don't even sell into phones without cameras? The answer is that one way to grow your revenue without increasing market share is to grow the number of cellphones with cameras (or the penetration rate). So the SAM/TAM designation is used to distinguish between actually growing your market share versus just growing your volume. It also allows you to look at strategies on how to push penetration for your served segment instead of just market penetration if you happen to be in a market where SAM penetration is stuck. This chart shows the TAM/SAM breakdown for cellphone cameras:




Obviously there are plenty of markets where the TAM and SAM are the same.

SOM - Share of Market - this is just the market share you have in your SAM, or in this case your total volume versus the total SAM volume. As noted above, by comparing your SOM to both your SAM and your TAM, you can get a feel if you are really growing market share, or just increasing volume along with the total market growth.

Okay so far? Next we get to the 3Cs. Everyone knows the 3Rs, but what are the 3Cs of Marketing? Customers, Company, and Competition. The idea is that when doing business planning you have to do an analysis and get an understanding of these items when creating a business plan. So in our case you would do an analysis of customers Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, etc. Look at what your competition has on the market, what their roadmaps are, and also understand what your company's products and roadmaps are and how they compare and serve the market. In doing this analysis you would probably do the 4Ps: Product, Pricing, Placement and Promotion.

When I do business planning, however, I like the model presented by Michael Porter in his book Competitive Advantage. This is a pretty hefty read, and a little dated now, but the model itself is timeless and what I use for business analysis. It expands on the 3C concept to understand an industry through its entire value chain:



The thing Porter points out with this model is that just understanding your competitors, customers and company is not enough. For example, can a supplier forward integrate into your market and become a competitor? Can a customer backward integrate and become a competitor? New entrants and substitutions are always a threat. And regulations by the government should always be considered since they can break - or create - entire markets on their own (v-chip makers owe their whole product line's existence to a government regulation).

Porter has some more recent books on this topic, and his model has been picked up by plenty of others, so I would suggest a look along this line of thought for anyone doing business analysis or planning.

Will AI Come for Your Job?

At my age I have lived through a lot of hype cycles.  Everything from "cold fusion", to more than a couple of "room temperature superconductors", to the early days of the internet, and a lot of other magic technologies that were going to Change Everything. 

Now the internet did have a huge impact on everything from business to society, but not in the way anyone forecasted.  And it took over a decade for things to really materialize.  And along the way the companies that were supposed to create big change (pets.com?) are long gone and the companies that had seemingly insurmountable leads gave way to newcomers (Yahoo, Mosaic and a ton of other early pioneers made way for later upstart Google).

The latest hype of course is AI.  While I think it represents a significant change, I think the hype about it is way overdone.  Companies and stock traders are whipping up a frenzy to make gobs of money while any real changes will be years away (like the early internet).  I also think that what AI can do is rather limited.  Like everyone else I tried Chat GPT when it first came out and after a couple of hours of playing with it I was underwhelmed.  It gave incorrect answers to several queries and its default writing style comes off like a boot-licking toady due to the woke programming.

Perhaps I am too old to be impressed by AI as I actually store knowledge in my brain rather than rely on the internet.  So the fear about AI is probably true for younger generations who don't know anything, can't do critical thinking, and coasted through college while getting a Gender Studies degree.

A post over at Mish discussed a WSJ article if we are entering the "Cognitive Revolution", where someone tested if they could be replaced by an AI.  Here is my comment at Mish about the article and concept:

If your job can be replaced with AI then you have a rote data collection/data spewing job that does not create new information, advancements, or include any true creation. 

Now this does include a very large number of people holding down seats in cube farms, call centers and the like.  Plus anything that is cookie cutter/rules based output like basic wills, tax forms and the like. 

So if your answer is "yes AI can replace my job", then maybe you are good at memorization, data management and outputting that info, but not really with original creative thinking, interpersonal interaction, or a dozen other human talents I could list.  If you are worried about AI, then develop your skills where AI cannot.

I am not worried about AI replacing my job, and I don't use AI to help me because, quite frankly, I can write and find information better than it can.  But I do agree that it is better than most of the graduates the US school system is putting out these days.

 

Comission Changes in the Real Estate Market

Like most people I have a love-hate relationship with realtors.  I know a few personally, including family members who dabble, but my experience with realtors has been mostly negative because they either sucked or worked against my interests (realtors I knew always worked outside the state or region where I was buying so could never use a friend or relative).

That main problem with realtors - working against my interests - was when I was on the buying side because when you buy a house, you are not the client!  The realtor is being paid by the seller as a percentage of the sales price, so the realtor's interest is not aligned to the buyer, but to the seller with the highest priced house with the highest commission.  A realtor would rather put you in a $1M house with a 3% sellers commission, and not even show you the $800K one offering 2% to the selling agent.

This dynamic played out in my current home, which I found had all sorts of issues after I moved in.  The inspection report, from an inspector recommended by "my" agent, had outright lies, and my theory is the two agents paid off the inspector to give the house a clean bill of health so they would each collect their 3% from the seller.  By the time I figured this out the inspector had shut down his business, so I couldn't go after him, and the hassle of a lawsuit against the realtors or sellers was not worth it as it would take a lot of money and take a couple of years.  I ended up having to do a lot of work and spend a lot of money to fix problems that should have been called out in the inspection report. 

So besides declaring to never again trust a realtor to use "an inspector I've known for years who is great!", the other thing I decided that moving forward I would find a "buyers agent" that I would hire, and get out of the situation of the seller paying "my" realtor.  That way the person helping me with the house would be aligned to me, then I would find my own inspectors and any other third parties related to the sale.  But that model was actually hard to set up, until now.

Thanks to a settled lawsuit, my preferred model is what the real estate industry will start moving towards this summer:

Under the current rules, buyers typically don’t pay their own agents out of pocket. Going forward under the new system, buyers might have to foot the bill if they want an agent to represent them.

Starting in the summer, the new rules will require most home buyers to sign agreements detailing how much their agents will be paid for their services. If home sellers are unwilling to cover the cost of the buyer’s agent, these agreements would likely require the buyer to pay the agent directly.

The counter-arguments that buyers have to come out of pocket or can't roll the fees into the house financing run into the saying used for social media: if a service is "free" you are the product!  Basically the real estate industry has been ripping off buyers for years by aligning agents to only the sell-side of the street, so this this settlement is a welcome change to the industry dynamics, and look forward to using for my next real estate transaction.

The Fallacy of "Green Jobs"

Every time I hear a politician talk about government spending to create "green jobs" I can't believe the illogic of the argument:

1. If "green" energy works, it will take the place of "old" energy - oil, coal, natural gas, etc.
2. So if green jobs go up, old energy jobs go down.  Best case there is a one-for-one trade off a lost carbon energy job for every green worker who gains a job.
3. If green energy really is more efficient, it means that the total energy needs of the U.S. will be supported by fewer people, so green energy means a net loss of jobs.

But at the end of the day "green jobs" is just a code word for government spending boondoggles that do nothing to help the employment picture, or create more energy, or bring energy costs down, but some people go along with it because it "sounds good".

Dumb Move. First They'll Steal Your Technology, Next They Will Crowd You Out

Lesson 1: don't trust the Chinese.  Lesson 2: they will stab you in the back (see Lesson 1).  But GE, thought to be a well-run company, apparently doesn't know since they agreed to share their jet technology with China.

 
Name one - any - company that is happy with their joint development efforts with China.  Name one that hasn't had their technology boldly ripped off?  Name one who has made money in the long run.

Business Quote of the Day

The most dangerous negotiation is one you don't know you're in.

- Jim Camp

Ads Showing Calm When People Should Be Freaking Out

While wandering through a catalog that hit my doorstep this week I was bemused by the ad for a "fire ladder".  The product seems like one of those things that won't ever be around for people who need them, and the people who buy them are probably the most prepared, planning (i.e. anal) type least likely to have a fire.  But what I really found amusing was the picture that accompanied the product.  Does this woman look like she is fleeing a burning house?

Put her in a bathing suit with the ladder descending into a pool and her expression would be just fine.

This reminded me of the safety instruction cards on airplanes.  Tell me these people are in a crashing plane:

Of course, maybe this isn't a fair example, since according to Tyler Durden in Fight Club, you WILL be calm:

Tyler Durden: [pointing at an emergency instruction manual on a plane] You know why they put oxygen masks on planes?

Narrator: So you can breathe.

Tyler Durden: (Pure) Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you're taking giant panicked breaths. Suddenly you become euphoric, docile. You accept your fate. It's all right here (shows pictures on emergency manual). Emergency water landing - 600 miles an hour. Blank faces, calm as Hindu cows.

New TSA Choice: Full Body Scanner or Getting Felt Up

I wrote in June that I refuse Full Body Scanners on sake of principle.  They do not make flying safer, are slower and more tedious than metal detectors, and are a colossal waste of money and resources that does nothing to prevent terrorism. 

The other complaints of Body Scanners - privacy and radiation - don't bother me.  I have the body of a Greek god and don't mind showing it off, and I get quite a bit of radiation just being on a plane at 30,000 feet.  But I am sympathetic to and support those who do object on these grounds (especially pregnant women and those who object due to modesty).

I have successfully managed to dodge body scanners since June, and figured if I did encounter one I would go through the usual brief pat-down, maybe a wand.  But now the TSA has raised the stakes with "Enhanced" Pat Downs.

So what, officially, is an "enhanced" pat down?  The TSA doesn't document it and they won't tell anyone.  And why would that be?  Because they are so invasive.

Based on traveler reports the new enhanced technique is a full, hand's-on grope of the entire body - genitals are felt up, the edge of the hand is rubbed up and down between your butt cheeks, women have their entire breast region felt up.  It in an intrusive feel-up of the entire body, including areas that are illegal to be touched by licensed massage professionals, even if those areas are clothed (I am serious here).

I don't care who it is, no one working for government is going to touch me that way unless they have me handcuffed and subdued.  So I am not going to allow them to do it just to get on a plane; not just to create the illusion of safety for everyone else.

This whole molestation effort is an attempt to force people into the scanners - hoping that people like me are so disgusted that I will just go along.

Short term I have no choice.  But I do have the choice to fly, and the choice to complain to the government. I am pretty certain the latter will not do any good, however, so I see myself flying a lot less in the future.

A Lot Of What You Own Is Made By a Company You Never Heard Of

Hon Hai - also known as Foxconn - has nearly a million employees churning out iPhones, computers, video games, and all sort of gadgets. Whole cities of nothing but 300,000 Foxconn employess - giant versions of 19th century factory towns - exist to crank out electronics for the world masses.

The article Everything Is Made by Foxconn in Future gives an interesting overview of this giant company, it's founder, and it's place in the world supply chain.

Is There Going To Be a Tablet for Every OS?

The iPad, of course, uses Apple's operating system.  Windows, Linux and Android tablets are all announced for late year introductions.  And now we have HP planning to introduce a Palm tablet computer.

I guess HP had to do something with their Palm acquisition...

Kickbacks at Apple?

I am a little astounded, and as someone who sells technology appalled: Apple manager indicted on kickback charges:

(Apple Manager) Devine, 37, is accused of accepting more than $1 million in exchange for providing confidential information to Apple suppliers in Asia. The suppliers allegedly used the information to negotiate favorable contracts with Apple, which is based in Cupertino.

Right now the companies involved are saying that they did not know this guy worked at Apple and were buying "consulting services". That just happen to help them win contracts at Apple.

HP's Hurd - My Theory

HP's Mark Hurd Resigns After Sexual-Harassment Probe

Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Mark Hurd resigned as chief executive officer after an investigation found he had a personal relationship with a contractor who received numerous inappropriate payments from the company.
...
Hurd submitted receipts for expenses ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 over two years, including meals and travel, that should have been labeled as personal and not related to business, said a person familiar with the situation.

The expenses were incurred at HP-hosted “CEO forums,” mostly in North America, in which Hurd participated, this person said. The woman worked as a contractor hosting the events

Then

HP Contractor Didn't Have Sex or Affair With CEO Hurd, Lawyer Allred Says

So the CEO lays out thousands of dollars in business expenses to go around the country with this woman for...not having sex or an affair?  Riiiiggght.

Actually there could be one plausible explanation that fits these facts: There was a mentor-mentee, father-daughter thing going on where Hurd was trying to shepherd the girl and they became emotionally intimate.  If she then approached him for a sexual relationship and he turned her down, her anger would drive her to try to destroy him by going to a lawyer, despite the fact there was never any sex.

Collided Airlines?

With the merger of Continental and United, there is speculation on how the two names could be combined for the new airline.  I think Collided might not pass marketing tests.  Uconned might appeal to consumers who are are starting to pay for carry-on luggage.  And I doubt it will be good enough to be called Contented.

Beware Chinese Easter Eggs

In other words, hidden traps or software in the networking equipment they sell.  India finally figured it out:

The Financial Times reported yesterday that the country’s Telecommunications Department informed the office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that requests for importing Chinese manufactured hardware where being turned down on security grounds.

Essentially if you buy Chinese networking equipment, you just invited the Chinese gonvernment into your computer system.  India has figured it out, so it will be interesting to see if anyone else does.

HPalmCompaq

HP acquires Palm. It isn't suprising that Palm got acquired, what is surprising (to me anyway) was that it was HP. Everyone else was mentioned at one point.

That puts both U.S. PC makers - Dell and HP - into the cellphone market. Add Smartphone giants Apple and RIM, plus Microsoft's and Google's recent foray into cellphones, then include struggling Motorola, and we have a nice little cellphone industry located right here in North America.

Of course none of the manufacturing is done here - it's all overseas.