And lasers. And Unix. And switched networking. And binary digital computers. And long-haul undersea cables. And the first successful communications satellite. And data networking.
I think the transistor might have had something to do with all of this innovation. Not to mention C++, wireless networking, and a sizeable fraction of the semiconductor process technology that makes modern electronics possible.
"Corporate R&D never worked very well in the first place." Huh?!? The first public fax transmission, the transistor, the first synchronous-sound motion picture, UNIX, C and C++, low-cost fiber optic phone systems, the first Wireless LAN, and numerous laser techonologies were all products of Bell Laboratories corporate R&D.
The Bell Labs Song [1] neatly lists all the innovations -- and the list goes on and on, ranging from physics and cosmology, through low-level electronics and programming, to systems and organization design and applied math concepts.
Aside from the transistor, negative feedback, Unix, troff, radio astronomy, the charge coupled device, cryptography, information theory, what did Bell Labs ever do for us?
http://blog.tmcnet.com/next-generation-communications/2011/0...
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