Santa Clara University
Silicon Valley Business Outlook

What industry, products, or strategies do you see as the "leading edge" of future growth for the Silicon Valley?
Verbatim responses, September 2002

return to Index

Industries/products:
advanced software and hardware.
applications for cellular products 
bio-medical, MEMS, wireless, professional services, enterprise integration, 
Biotech
Biotech 
biotech 
biotech / life sciences 
Biotech industry and companies. 
Biotechnology, Software Development, continued decrease in chip size and expansion of chip capabilities, Approaching Nanotechnology. 
Chip Technology, Better Networking Products and Solutions, Financial Center for Asian Rim, Product Development and Partnering Center for US and Asian Rim, BioTechnical R&D with new company startups, High Tech Development of new equipment, networks and systems for the Military. Software companies, etc.
Circuit design and manufacturing. 
Desktop security, secure data management 
Energy, environmental, "smart growth", sustainability 
Further integration of mobile and pda internet enabled devices offering new services. 
Growth of outsourced services provided by firms offering software as a service. 
Industry / product: 802.11b+ wireless technology, & small business related services such as Intuit. 
Medical Devices and biotechnology 
Nano technology, synergies between biotech and mechanical/semiconductor engineering. 
Nano Technology. 
Networking products 
proteomics and bioinformatics along with biochemically developed computers. 
Security 
security for network 
service industries
Services-led engagements with customers versus hardware/software-led sales 
Smaller, more specialized devices, possibly RFID-based devices or MEMS-based devices, which deliver new capabilities and functionality to users.  These devices coupled with wireless and web-based services will create the next generation of networked connectedness at work and at home.
software 
The video/broadband market; wiring the home; personal safety technology (tracking chip anyone?). Strategies - justifying the ROI for tech investment. 
Wireless 
Wireless Broadband Internet access 
Strategies/Comments:
I'm still waiting for the corporate sector to step up to the plate and begin investing. The consumer segment has kept this economy going for the last 1.5 years and it has run out of options -- stock sale, refinancing, credit. The increase in consumer credit and the increase in foreclosures tells me that consumers are tapped out. It is time for the corporate segment to begin investing and creating jobs...
Many Silicon Valley firms depend on purchases from the Telecommunications Industry. That industry is being brought to its knees by the FCC's perverse enforcement of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. FCC Chairman Michael Powell to stop crippling the industry by forcing the big Bell companies to sell its services to resellers below the telcos' cost to supply it. In effect, that enforcement has upset that market by not allowing simple economic laws such as supply and demand to run their course. In effect, the regulation does not allow the market to set telecom prices, but rather by setting the price where no sensible business person would sell. Hopefully state and federal regulators will soon come to their senses and break up this economic anomaly, so the telcos can get on with the business of investing in America's technology future. That should have a positive effect on such firms as 3-Com, Cisco Systems, Bay Networks (now Nortel) and possibly H-P, and, of course, their suppliers.
Silicon Valley- back to the basics, make it business friendly instead of GREEN. Yep, going to Grass Valley, they like small business.

return to Index