> Can't, say, Ericsson take the radios in their cell towers or picocells, redo their tape-outs for phone scale, and end up with a workable mobile radio? They c

> Can't, say, Ericsson take the radios in their cell towers or picocells, redo their tape-outs for phone scale, and end up with a workable mobile radio? They can, and they did. Not exactly of course, the two products are fundamentally different, but the organization owns enough IP and good engineers to make a viable product. From a technology standpoint it seems reasonable. The problem is that the competition is tough and you need to stay on your toes with much more rapid iteration than on the "other leg" where you sell expensive stuff to telcos. And the margins on the consumer side are smaller. So, historically, it has proven very difficult to host the same two "legs" in the same organization. The one with bigger more reliable business tends to push the other out. It's been the same with much of the computer industry too.