NYT: Big tech, under siege, plows ahead

“For all intents and purposes, we’re only 35 years into a 75- or 80-year process of moving from analog to digital. —Tim Bajarin

From David Streitfeld’s provocative Big Tech May Look Troubled, but It’s Just Getting Started in Wednesday’s New York Times.

Once seen as a force for making our lives better and our brains smarter, tech is now accused of inflaming, radicalizing, dumbing down and squeezing the masses. Tech company stocks have been pummeled from their highs. Regulation looms. Even tech executives are calling for it.

In the face of such a sustained assault, this might be a good moment for Big Tech to lie low. It could devote some of its mountains of cash — Apple alone has $237 billion in the bank — to genuine good works, and allay widespread fears it wants to control your data and your destiny.

That is not the path the companies are taking.

“The tech companies are not flinching,” said Bob Staedler, a Silicon Valley consultant. “Nothing has hit them on the nose hard enough to tell them to cut back. Instead, they are expanding. They’re going around the country acquiring the best human capital so they can create the next whiz-bang thing.” …

“For all intents and purposes, we’re only 35 years into a 75- or 80-year process of moving from analog to digital,” said Tim Bajarin, a longtime tech consultant to companies including Apple, IBM and Microsoft. “The image of Silicon Valley as Nirvana has certainly taken a hit, but the reality is that we the consumers are constantly voting for them.”

My take: Apple has been largely—but apparently not completely—successful in distancing itself from the bad odor that surrounds “big tech.” BTW, Streitfeld, who is very good, is also the resident luddite on the Times’ West Coast tech team. Fun interview here.