TRANSMETA FLOP... THE HYPE THAT DIDN'T BECOME REALITY

Good story by Chris O'Brien at Mercury News. Remember all the hype of Transmeta back in 1999 when they first launched and then hired Linus Torvalds, founder of Linux. Read the rest:

Transmeta - how a great idea, brilliant minds and big investors equaled a big flop

January 16, 2005

Great ideas don't always make for great businesses. Just look at Transmeta.

In early 2000, the Santa Clara start-up unveiled its plans for a power-saving computer chip amid a blizzard of hype. ``If it's mobile and it has a browser, it will use a Transmeta chip,'' boasted company founder David Ditzel on the day of the launch.

Although the market that Transmeta helped create flourished, the company did not. This month, it all but said it was turning out the lights.

What happened?

While the company suffered a number of self-inflicted wounds, it also apparently fell victim to a painful reality in Silicon Valley: Innovators don't always win in the marketplace. (full article)