A Lesson from Nexus One

Just a few weeks ago, in a recent blog post, I alluded to the ubiquitous iPhone and Blackberry devices. Today however, the “mode-du-jour” is of course Google’s new Nexus One smartphone. That’s as fast as it goes in this high-tech consumer world of ours.

The word “nexus” comes from the Latin “nectere” which means “to bind”, and a common definition for “nexus” is “means of communications”. That’s a nicely found name for a much anticipated device. But what is interesting about the phone and its roll-out is not so much the quite predictable hype: it is the big backlash which took only a few days to get going.

Amongst others, the Google phone is charged with very weak customer support and poor 3G performance. But worst of all is the complaint by many angry Android developers about the lack of a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the device.

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The point here is not to discuss the quality of the Nexus One. Rather, it is to understand what makes or breaks the success of a product in the high-tech industry. Today, even the greatest product can hardly stand on its own. While good technology is critical, a broad supporting ecosystem has become a necessity. This of course has been exemplified by Apple’s success with the iPhone, iTunes and AppStore combination. And that kind of an ecosystem is precisely what the Google phone lacks today.

This lesson from Nexus One applies beyond the smartphone market. In EDA as well ecosystems have a very important role to play. Silicon vendor sign-off, libraries and IP availability, training, consulting, 3rd party integrations… all of these have a determinant impact in the successful deployment of a new technology.

Take the example of high-level synthesis. Excellent core synthesis technology is obviously essential to achieve the quality of result required from production usage. But a decision to adopt and deploy HLS is typically made on broader criteria than QoR alone. And these usually include considerations such as quality of support, silicon vendor endorsement, reference examples, university programs, integration with other tools and even the ability to hired trained resources. For that matter, and in order to spread knowledge and facilitate adoption, a robust ecosystem is needed.

This is an area where Mentor Graphics and the Catapult team have considerably invested in the past several years. Point-tools alone are not sufficient, and truly, partnerships matter. It is all about the customers, and enabling them for success.

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