Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Somehow, at some recent point in time, someone tried to change the definition of a technology company.

Blame it on old age, but I am fed up with what the media, in particular the technology media, calls a “Tech Company.”

Headlines tell me that our President (Obama) is meeting with CEOs of tech companies to map national technology strategy or to discuss surveillance of citizens or some such. They then list the heads of Facebook, Yahoo, Google, and the rest of the usual suspects.

So, here I go making enemies of everyone.

Facebook is not a technology company. Mr. Zuckerburg wrote software that allowed friends to message one another without using email. Someone found a way to sell advertising space next to the messages and viola—ga-zillion-aires! That is not technology.

Google, with the exception of a few research projects and recent robotics company purchases, is not a technology company. A couple of grad students experimented with search algorithms, also found a way to sell advertising space, and also became ga-zillion-aires.

Apple is no longer a technology company. Apple is an intellectual property company. They design systems and hire other people to build those systems.

Hewlett-Packard still does some technology. (You try to make a printer head that squirts ink at 600 dots per inch.) It is unfortunate, however, that HP sold off much of its actual technology to other companies, see, for example, Agilent.

Technology involves transforming ideas into physical things. Design and build a machine that operates on the human body in ways that were not imagined ten years ago. Design and build a machine that takes people to Mars safely in seven days. Design and build a flying machine that transports hundreds of people around the world on one gallon of gasoline per person (or how about not using fossil fuels at all?). Those are examples of advanced or high technology.

Facebook? Technology? No, that is advertising.

Okay, now everyone can hate me.