111 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
111 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
The Rise and Fall of the Modem King
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International Herald Tribune
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By Victoria Shannon
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The Rise and Fall of the Modem King
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By Victoria Shannon International Herald Tribune
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PARIS - In a field in which everything is focused on the future,
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on how fast and smart and cool technology will be in just a
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couple of months or years - just you wait and see - sometimes we
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need to pause for a little history lesson.
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This one is about a modest-sized company based in the Atlanta
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suburb of Norcross, Georgia, a business called Hayes Corp. If
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you're on the Internet, you probably have this company to thank
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for it: Hayes - or rather, its founder, Dennis Hayes - invented
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both the personal-computer modem and some of the basic standards
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that all of today's modems still answer to, according to the
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company and on-line experts. Even if you've never bought anything
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from the company, you may know the Hayes name from two distinct
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places: on the box of the external modem you buy, describing it
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as "Hayes-compatible," or from the list of modem settings your
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communications software offers.
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On the surface, at least, Hayes's tale appears to debunk at least
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two clichés: that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice,
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and that we learn from our mistakes.
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But first, a look back. Dennis Hayes, the chronicles tell us,
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left the Georgia Institute of Technology in the mid-1970s to work
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at a company called National Data Corp. It was there that he
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realized the need to make modems that could be configured with
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software to respond to various orders, such as "answer on first
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ring." That would be a better way than building those different
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responses into the hardware, which would require that there be
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many different kinds of modems.
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He and a partner created the first circuit boards imbued with
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that ideal in 1977 - not in his garage, as legends dictate, but
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close: on the dining-room table in his home.
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HAYES MICROCOMPUTER Products Inc. was founded with a $5,000
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investment in January 1978, and Mr. Hayes went on to become the
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modem king, far surpassing any rival in sales and having his
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name forever associated with any modem sold to the masses.
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The modem brands by which you may know him today are Optima,
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Accura, Practical Peripherals and Century. The commands by
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which you may know him begin with "AT" in your software's
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initialization string.
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Last autumn, the company marked 20 years as a pioneer in two
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ways: by selling special 20th-anniversary modems signed by
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Mr. Hayes himself and by filing for bankruptcy-court protection.
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Alas, it was the second time in three years that the first name
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in modems had had to seek refuge in bankruptcy court. The
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lightning bolt of financial and management troubles had struck
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again.
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But Hayes is also a case study in yet another maxim: Getting
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there first or best does not guarantee success. Just look at
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International Business Machines Corp. (first out with the
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personal computers that are today's "WinTel" standard). Or
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Apple Inc. (best, with its Macintosh line). Why does this happen?
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Some say the egos of pioneers subsume their better business
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judgments. Some blame unique intersections of events and
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circumstances.
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In Hayes's case, the company apparently had manufacturing
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problems and other production snafus that left it in the lurch
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the first time it filed for bankruptcy protection.
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The second time, the company said it was a victim of a cash
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shortage caused by stagnant sales that had plagued all modem
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makers in the transition from 33,600 bits-per-second speeds to
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56k.
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Asia, too, before its recession, was a strong market for Hayes,
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and its economic collapse reverberated in the company. But Hayes
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was still the No. 2 seller of modems, behind - though far behind
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- 3Com's U.S. Robotics. In October, it even introduced a
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next-generation modem based on the "digital subscriber line"
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technology that really ramps up Internet transfer speeds.
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Can a technology visionary and legend fail and make a comeback
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- twice? Is there really such a thing as "revenge of the nerds?"
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Maybe. Just ask IBM, which is certainly a success despite its
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forfeiture of control of the PC business. Or ask Apple, which
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is now riding high after many predictions of its imminent demise.
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But don't ask Hayes. Its creditors ran out of patience and
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financing and pulled the plug this week. On Monday, the Hayes
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business shut down and prepared to liquidate.
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Victoria Shannon edits TribTech and can be e-mailed at:
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tribtech@iht.com.
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The organization that now sets modem standards is the
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International Telecommunication Union, found at www.itu.ch. The
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latest, and last, analog modem standard is called v.90, and
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everything you ever wanted to know about it is at www.v90.com.
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For more basic information, an on-line retailer has posted a
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simple modem dictionary at www.modemshop.com/mdic210.txt.
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