Smoking Peers

 I couldn’t resist a smile when I saw the following headline in a recent newsletter: “Ericsson wins $1.8bn of Chinese deals“. And my smile widened when, a few days later, I read about Ericsson scoring another huge deal in India.

The two announcements underscored the significant strides made by the Swedish company in the 4G wireless market. 4G, also known as LTE (Long Term Evolution), refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. With a data rate of at least 100 Mbit/s, 4G promises ultra-broadband to the mobile user. This means higher performance than with traditional internet subscriptions and with this, the potential to shake and redefine the telecom and ISP markets.

Yet this blog post isn’t about the promises of 4G. It is about the time, effort and commitment it takes to deliver leading edge electronic products in our modern days. Back in September of 2009, TheStreet.com already acknowledged that Ericsson was “smoking peers in the 4G race“. Smoking peers! That’s an awesome compliment. Who wouldn’t want to be in the same situation with regards to competition?

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But make no mistake: Ericsson’s recent successes didn’t come out of the blue. And I would argue that, more than anyone else in this industry, they recognized what being first to market would mean to their business, and more than anyone else, they had the determination to execute on this vision.

It can take a long time to refine an idea, fine tune a prototype, roll-out a product and eventually celebrate success. In Ericsson’s case, this time was measured in years. Twenty four months ago, in April of 2008, Ericsson was the first company to introduce commercial LTE platforms for mobile devices. And one year prior that, Ericsson had demonstrated a prototype running live LTE at 144Mpbs during the 3GSM World Congress trade fair in Barcelona.

In retrospect, this sequence of events speaks for itself. It is all about timeliness and commitment. But when, as in Ericsson’s case, you are not the only contender in the race, it’s also about differentiating in the execution to gain a competitive edge. So can it be a surprise if, prior to these announcements, Ericsson started using Catapult C for algorithmic developments, resulting in faster design time and increased flexibility?

I remember cold winter days in Sweden. I remember being by stuck by the snow, desperately waiting for a taxi which would never come. And this is why I couldn’t resist the smile.

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