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By the turn of the century, Nvidia had not only come back from the brink of extinction, it was dominating the graphics card market with its GeForce 256 card. 3dfx, once king of the graphics arena with its Voodoo line, was dying a slow death en route to being acquired by Nvidia. ATI's Rage, a traditional contender, was beginning to look weak; the Rage 128 GL, Rage 128 Pro and Rage Fury Maxx all fizzled in one way or another. Graphics hardware was degenerating into a distinctly one-horse race.
Then came Radeon.
The Radeon GPU did it all when the line launched in 2000, and it did it all well. Radeon offered a bevy of graphical options that were powerful enough to stand toe-to-toe with Nvidia's benchmark-leading GeForce2 GTS. Radeon restored ATI to a competitive, if not quite dominant, position in the graphics market. When the Radeon 9700 Pro hit the streets in 2002, it blew other graphics cards out of the water – even Nvidia's. Even though AMD long ago bought the reinvigorated ATI for a whopping $5.4b, the Radeon line still lives on.
Creative Technology started out as a small computer repair shop in Singapore. How many other major companies can say that? In any case, the co-founders quickly moved into the computer manufacturing business themselves. In 1986, the company rolled out the Cubic CT, a computer developed specifically for the Singapore market. It flopped, and flopped hard. Creative Technology stood on the brink of extinction and decided to focus their energy – and dwindling cash reserves – on the innovative sound card it created for the Cubic CT.
Creative's first major sound card, dubbed the Creative Music System, launched in 1987. It didn't quite flop, but the rival AdLib sound card quickly mopped the floor with the newcomer.
Creative Labs, Creative Technology's US subsidiary, paid careful attention while Adlib was busy kicking its butt. The result? The legendary Sound Blaster. When the Sound Blaster debuted in 1989, it featured all the tech behind the Creative Music System, plus the Yamaha YM3812 chip that powered AdLib. That meant that the Sound Blaster was fully compatible with every game that included AdLib support. Plus, the Sound Blaster packed in a joystick port – a relative rarity in those days. Creative combined that technological superiority with a hyper-aggressive ad campaign and by the end of 1990 the Sound Blaster was the best selling computer add-on around and a must-have accessory for PC gamers.
Sure, SmartSuite's still around. So's Lotus, kinda – but not in any way that matters to most consumers. Lotus focused on the IBM OS/2 in the early 1990s and found itself blindsided by the success of Windows 95 and its 32-bit architecture. After buying a bunch of other apps to try and compete with the various Windows programs, Lotus bundled them together under the SmartSuite name. Even though SmartSuite came gratis on many PCs, Microsoft Office wiped the floor with Lotus' product (partly because of Microsoft's Office bundling shenanigans) and took Lotus' throne as the king of all office applications. IBM acquired Lotus in a hostile takeover and the once-giant is now part of IBM's software group, a shadow of its former self.
When the hardware-focused palmOne and the OS-focused PalmSource merged to reform Palm, Inc. in 2005, the glory days of the PalmPilot (and heck, even the Treo) were behind them. RIM's BlackBerry stole a lot of PalmPilot fans and Apple's iPhone would soon steal even more. Palm had a plan to get back on track, though. The wrong one, i.e. the Pre.
Unfortunately for Palm, consumers didn't like the Pre as much as the people at Palm did. The company signed an exclusivity deal with Sprint, who was only the third largest US carrier. The keyboard kinda sucked, and webOS's apps couldn't hold a candle to Apples. Perhaps worst of all there simply wasn't any reason to buy a Pre (or its follow-up, the Pixi) over a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android phone. In fact, in 2010, Palm's CEO admitted that he'd never even touched an iPhone.
HP purchased Palm for $1.2 billion, less than a year after the Pre hit the streets. HP quickly killed off the Palm brand and is focusing its efforts on webOS. Edit: The day this article was published, HP killed webOS as well.
RIM's in the same place Palm was five years ago; fading away. Android's climb to the top of the smartphone heap has come largely at RIM's expense. Since June, RIM's shares have hit a five year low and the company's been forced to axe over 2,000 workers, which amounts to about 11 percent of its workforce. Clearly RIM's on the ropes – and it needs to land a hit.
But does the old fighter have any gusto left? RIM pinned high hopes on its PlayBook tablet, but then they rushed it to market prematurely – without native email, calendar or contact apps – and struggled with a small recall early. Sales have been so underwhelming that Sprint recently decided that they didn't really want to carry a 4G PlayBook after all.
Before the PlayBook, RIM had high hopes for the BlackBerry Torch – hopes that failed to turn into reality. "If you don't already own a BlackBerry, you will not want this phone," Matt Buchanan said in his Gizmodo review of the Torch. "And if you do, you still might not want it, even if it may very well be the best BlackBerry ever." Ouch.
So what's left? RIM plans on rolling out its first smartphone with the QNX operating system in the first quarter of 2012. Will "Colt" be the magic pill RIM needs? The initial signs are shaky, and the digerati are already skeptical. QNX is the OS behind the underwhelming PlayBook. That's not a tremendous heritage (especially if it's still lacking email support when Colt launches), but if the phone manages to appeal to consumers rather than just the traditional RIM business client, the company still has time to right the ship.
So what did we get wrong? What did we get right? We're sure at least one of you thinks we're idiots – why? Did we forget about a company? Let us know in the comments!
Comments are closed on this article
naxself
August 20, 2011 at 10:31am
RIM's problem is that it's exactly like the guy who lived in Bratislave in "EuroTrip." When asked by the main characters if there was a train nearby by they could take to Berlin, he said, "Yes. They're building it now."
RIM doesn't realize that the it's building a train to nowhere. The PlayBook was a great idea marred by terrible implementation (really? No email on a RIM device?!?). The designs of their phones are not meant for consumers; they're meant for business people desperately trying (and failing) to look cool. In trying to capture the "cool" market, RIM lost itself. It needs to find an industrial designer who will revamp the comsumer end of their products, kinda like when Sterling Cooper hired young people to get in touch with youth in the 1960s. The put out two products: one for the coporate people who love them (and their functionality and email service) and one for consumers, which is a completely different, consumer-friendly design (alternatively, scrap the corporate wing and just redesign the phone from the ground up; I'm not sure how much money RIM has laying around or if they can support two separate groups).
Compounding this problem is the OS. RIM clearly rushed both the PlayBook and OS 6.0 (or whatever it is). They need to either push updates to all the phones or else stop supporting all phones before a certain year. Make sure to offer free upgrades so the consumer doesn't migrate to Apple or Android.
Neckername
August 19, 2011 at 2:19pm
I remember having a Radeon 9200 128MB PCI card replace my VooDoo3 2000 card. It served very well for its price. I have been an ATI (now AMD) graphics fan since. I still like the way their cards are conservative on power, low heat, and low price. I also work repairing phones at sprint, and between the number of blackberry pda's we need to repair (whether it's software or hardware), and the blackberry OS user interface, they are now a horrible platform with little support for upcoming technology. However, windows phone is getting better (slowly but surely), so there is still hope. Don't get me started on palm devices. I'm glad they're done with.
dethduck
August 19, 2011 at 1:17pm
Man, that Radeon 9800 Pro was a beast, ran everything I threw at it right up till it finally burned out in early 2007. I was already an ATI convert from my Rage128 but that 9800Pro sealed me in for good. Won't buy anything but now.
Opterongeek
August 19, 2011 at 11:48am
Just one thing, and it's minor, but I'm a geek, and I knew the 286 was 80286. I think the line should have read "After striking gold with the 80286 – better known to everyone else as the 286 – in 1982..."
Hell, I was only a year old when the 286 launched. Give us some credit ;)
€-Man
August 19, 2011 at 7:02am
RIM is not on the ropes. RIM cannot be compared to Palm. RIM is profitable and continues to ship record units each quarter. They are on the decline in the US and under powered devices and the delay in new line were part of the problem. QNX is awesome, and even if things actually start looking grim for RIM, they easily can produce Android devices. RIM can easily become a leader in the Android market by producing Android phones and adding the many advantages of a Blackberry.
Peanut Fox
August 19, 2011 at 8:53am
I don't think Blackberry can succeed pushing Android. Not when the Android market is saturated by manufacturers. Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and LG all make Android phones and there are many more that make devices. Does RIM want to even attempt to step into that market? And even if they do what product do they bring to the table that can shine through the overwelming number of Android devices? Because no one seems to be responding to the things they're making now.
Browncow8
August 19, 2011 at 8:48am
What could they possibly add to an Android phone to make it any different or better than the current or unreleased Android phones?
Add a screen that clicks? Yeah that was a great idea.... NOT!!!
Scroll Ball? HTC has done that and kinda kicked it by the wayside.
Or maybe a flip phone with a scroll ball... yeah that phone went over well.... :S
Sliding phone? Blackberry took a long time to come out with one of those and almost evey other company that makes Android phones currently make a slider of some sort.
Maybe a native Brick Breaker game, because lets be honest with our selves, that was the best part of a Blackberry.
chinomon
August 19, 2011 at 12:00am
wow, I really enjoyed this article. I love all the flash from the past stuff you guys do, though I wasn't born yet some of us really enjoy learning things from the past we didn't know.
Eagle70ss
August 18, 2011 at 10:39pm
If anyone cares...the upper left emblem on the RIVA chip "ST" is ST Microelectronics...Stamped chips here in Big D for years at ST until they shut'em down and moved to Asia...It's French/Italian owned company with sites all over the world, but the USA sites were far and away the most productive and had the highest yields...The Italian side always loved us and the French side always hated us. The French side took over around 2009 and soon after, we got the chop...I guess that's how the crossiant crumbles.
I wonder if we will still be able to make a produce any chips here before it's all over.
Maktaka
August 18, 2011 at 10:06pm
Man, I WISH Lotus didn't matter to me. Unfortunately, Spain's pretty deep in Big Blue's pocket, and my (American) employer is owned by a Spanish company, which means Outlook is out and the utter piece of trash that is Lotus Notes is in. It takes a pretty godawful piece of software to make you pine for Outlook.
avenger48
August 18, 2011 at 7:19pm
Really nice job, guys, this is one of the best articles I've seen on MPC in the last year or so.
jac_goudsmit
August 18, 2011 at 4:37pm
Wow, I would have bet a lot of money that the Apple iPod would be in here somewhere. As far as I remember from the late 90s, PC's were king and Apple was almost dead: all they had were MacIntoshes that no-one wanted anymore; Microsoft and other software makers stopped supporting the Mac. Then came the iPod, followed by all the other iWhatever products and they're not doing so bad right now I think.
Brad Chacos
August 18, 2011 at 4:52pm
Hi Jac,
The iPod's one of the biggest success stories ever, and very well known -- no joke, my mother was explaining to my grandmother how it saved Apple just last week. Plus we tried to keep a more PC-oriented focus for this article. So, no iPod. You're right, though, in almost any other circumstance it would have been on the list.
someuid
August 18, 2011 at 4:23pm
I remember using OS/2. I remember moving a program directory and the icon on the desktop automatically updated itself to point to the exe's new location, due to the object oriented design of the OS. That was awesome.
I wish MS and IBM hadn't split, leaving OS/2 to die and MS to go make Win95, which was so simple and clunky compared to OS/2. How different computing would be had OS/2 grew and become the dominant OS.
OhSoCheesy
August 23, 2011 at 8:06pm
Yeah I couldn't believe MS beat IBM on that one. I guess I was in college at the time, but I never knew why MS won that one. OS/2 was clearly better. Anyone know why?
DogPatch1149
August 18, 2011 at 3:44pm
<nitpick>
"The future lied in microprocessors"...wouldn't that be "the future lay in microprocessors"?
</nitpick>
dgrmouse
August 18, 2011 at 3:18pm
lol @ 808286. There was an 8088 and a 80286, but no 808286 AFAIK.
