[quote=UCGal]I would disagree with the comment that the wireless high tech jobs in San Diego have been unscathed… Talk to former Motorola employees, former Kyocera employees, former Nokia employees, former Broadcom employees. Even Qualcomm is rumored to be doing stealth layoffs – numbers low enough to not be on the radar.
I think unemployment will be a factor. If only because I see coworkers with very large mortgages on their homes in CV and 4S, no savings reserves, who work for an employer who is still (according to 10Q filings) going to lay off thousands more by the end of the year. These friends will be hard pressed to keep paying their mortgage if they lose their job.[/quote]
I completely agree with UCGal on this one. Being an end user, and I am talking about B2B versus being a subscriber, there is not a lot of market for buidling subscriber end equipment. While ppl I know at the big Q are reporting that some of them are slowing and some are also picking up projects. The project that are coming up are for infastructure improvements (usually aimed at UMTS) versus developing cool new “shit” for the end user. Wireless is taking it in the shorts because end users of thier respective carrier are not spending money on features that they don’t need. If the carriers don’t have money… Then they are not going to pay Q or others to come up with new features. No reason in building things ppl cant afford. Carrier ARE spending money though for thing that will bring them capacity gains (new ASIC power alogrithms and that sort) because it saves them money long term.
End game is that every wireless guy I know is holding onto thier seat and not making any purchase they don’t need. And the guys that I know are some of the best in the biz… Guys that companies think twice about getting rid of because there are very few ppl that can ever replace them. None of us feel confident or like we are on easy street. We are looking over our shoulders just like the real estate guys and the construction workers.
