History of Silicon Valley

In our textbook A History of Silicon Valley (2013), we gain a great deal of information and insight to how the area became such a tech hub, as well as how companies either were successful or failed. A major part of the reading in chapter 14, which was on lawyers and investment bankers in Silicon Valley; stated that in Silicon Valley, "Failure is not a stigma, the fact that you started an enterprise and failed probably makes you more valuable as an entrepreneur". We also read in this chapter the differences between the role lawyers served in other areas such as the East Coast, when compared to lawyers in the Silicon Valley area. as stated in the text, "Silicon Valley's lawyering style is less adversarial an more cooperative than normal". The author Arun Rao (2013), goes on by saying lawyers in the East Coast in mainly focused on protecting wealth, and "fighting hard for their clients"; however, in the Silicon Valley area, lawyers are more understanding and supportive of cooperation, and since Silicon Valley is a small area, "all transactions are repeat transactions".

In chapter 19 of A History of Silicon Valley (2013), we read about companies that failed due to their early arrival in the market. As mentioned in the text, those these companies may have been good ideas that were later successful, these companies failed to present their services/products in a market that was ready for them. An example of on of these failed products that we would see a similar product of in later years was Apple's "Newton Personal Digital Assistant". AS stated by Rao (2013), "The Apple Newton was arguably the forerunner of all pad tablets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and smartphones". Some of the issues that surrounded the Apple Newton was that it was "pre-announced" too early before it was actually lost. Another key issue mentioned by Rao (2013)  is that the product itself was large, and had processing speed problems with certain actions.

A key chapter in A History of Silicon Valley (2013), would be chapter 22. Outlined in this chapter are how start-up companies were able to survive and become successful in Silicon Valley. A key point to this chapter is how Silicon Valley has a culture of risk taking. as mentioned by Rao (2013), we see that many new electronics firms failed, but "semiconductor components, making memory chips, programmable logic, micro-processors, and custom-made circuits constituted the heart of the most successful appliances ever". For investors, this meant that the risks were worth the reward. Rao (2013) states that investors learned to invest in many start-up companies, and though some were expected to fail, those that survived would bring in large amounts of revenue. Also outlined in the chapter was the type and number of people who flocked to the Silicon Valley area. According to Rao (2013), "None of this could have happened in the Bay Area had it not continued attracting brainpower form all over the world". With the combination of diversity and brainpower coming to the area, along with the notion of risk taking and investing in start-up companies; gave Silicon Valley the energy and drive necessary to thrive as one of the best technology hubs of the world.