Comment by larrys
14 years ago
From the article:
"Bell Labs (unlike today’s technology companies) had the luxury of serving a parent organization that had a large and dependable income ensured by its monopoly status."
Essentially deregulation of the phone market was a major contribution to the decline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System_divestiture
Similar in a way to what a profitable company can do that is not a pure monopoly (like google or apple).
Companies spend differently depending on competition or profitability, that's obvious. But what's not really obvious is that with a company like Apple or Google how much money they can spend or waste AND they still eak out that large profit. If you make money, you inevitably spend on things that you wouldn't if you were in a lower margin or less certain industry.
And in addition to a predictable revenue stream, the monopoly made Bell research more visible because the 1956 Consent Decree prevented Bell from entering other industries, leading them to publish or give away their inventions rather than holding them for maximum profit. (the transistor predates the Decree, so it may have been partly cultural)