Thread regarding Qualcomm Inc. layoffs

It's well known in Corporate R&D that ever since UMB/LTE the modem performance is within a small factor (maybe 2x-3x) of the optimal shannon information-theoretic limit, so essentially, there are no tech innovations left to make. Qualcomm has pretended this isn't true by inventing buzzwords like 5G or 6G and producing standards with "fatter and fatter pipes" but bonding together 100 fiber optics cables is not innovation, and this is all that Qualcomm can hope to do, because the execs are too terrified to attempt to enter any other markets other than RF/Radio markets (of they tried with CPU's but chickened out with 64-bit ARM and I predict they will stumble again and fall flat on their face as soon as they have difficulty again)

For a short period of time (1993-2010), the wireless telecom industry had something akin to moore's law. Now, what they have is more akin to s'more's law (everyone sit around a campfire and eat marshmallows and complain about how great their job USED to be!)

See my response (@dni)

In the time scale of technology, it did not happen "so fast".

Several years ago, this was easy to see based on what had happened in the hard disk industry and the desktop computer industry. First, the market becomes saturated, technology becomes good enough for the consumer, and the replacement cycles slow down. Second, it becomes more difficult for the industry to make significant advances in the technology. Third, some have more difficulty competing in a race to the bottom.

Back then, some of us within Qualcomm told others at Qualcomm it was coming within the next one or two generations. So we pushed for starting new projects that had the potential to make a significant difference in Qualcomm's future. However, that is easier said than done. Finding people who can come up with good ideas is very hard. Finding people who can push these ideas forward to the point that they have a real chance of being viable (from both a technology and business point) is very hard. Even after that, just like start-ups, many ideas will not be home runs.