"Metricom to close Ricochet"
This is sad. I thought that this idea was strong enough to live in some metropolitan areas at least. The problem (IMHO) is that VC's often kill the idea by pushing the "big score/massive expansion" rather than the "slow but sure wins the race" strategy. I can't tell you how many CEO's I've talked to recently who have told me about their board meetings over the past two years. All the same. Yelled at for not expanding fast enough ("sure, we'll make sure the money is there") followed by getting yelled at for having no cash ("why did you spend all the money?").
I think this would be excusable if most of the VC's in the world had never actually run a company before, but I've seen this behavior out of almost all of them (not all, thankfully), including the ones who have had harsh P&L responsibility in the past. hi ho.
Bryan Prohm, a wireless industry analyst for Gartner (market research and consulting firm) has previously described it as "the only logical Darwinian outcome."
Who is this guy and what's his rational for making that sort of statement? I think he missed the point. I doubt he ever used the technology.