The Industrial Wireless Quadrille

By : Jim Pinto,
San Diego, CA.
USA

Most companies in the automation industry recognize Wireless as a new "inflection point" which will generate significant growth and market share for the leaders. So, the "Wireless Wars" are generating wild and wacky posturing and dancing around.

This kind of noise is similar to what occurred during the "Fieldbus Wars" which started almost 2 decades ago. ISA was coordinating the SP50 Fieldbus standard, which never really got anywhere. In the end, some 10-15 different industrial networking protocols were approved as "standards". The situation was too funny to write about in regular prose - people would be offended by clear statements of what was happening. So, I turned to poetry - a crisp, lucid way of describing the situation.

Here (below) is my new poem on the Wireless Wars, in the lilt of Lewis Carroll's Lobster Quadrille. It was first published in JimPinto.com eNews, 25 September 2007.

The Industrial Wireless Quadrille

    With Apologies to Lewis Carroll
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - The Lobster Quadrille
"Will you walk a little faster!" cried Honeywell to the ISA snail
"There's an Emerson right behind me and he's treading on my tail!
We need ISA-100 now for wireless to advance
End-users have been waiting long and they will join the dance
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
    "You can really have no notion how delightful it will be,
    With this broader standard, why can't we just agree?"
    "WirelessHART!" cried Emerson and would not change their stance
    ABB, Siemens, E+H too, just would not join the dance.
    Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance!
"Lets join our games, pretend we're friends!" then Emerson replied
"'Cause everyone wants WirelessHART, it's ready NOW beside
ISA-100 will take too long, it really has no chance
So why don't you just join our game and then we both can dance!
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"
    Honeywell an open letter wrote, "Can't you see that HART's too narrow?
    ISA-100 includes all protocols that we will need tomorrow."
    Then lots of others gave their view, each trying to enhance
    With open-letters flying around, it was the strangest dance
    Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
These wireless wars have now become a Fieldbus deja vu
New SP-100 equals old SP-50 times two
The industry keeps spinning round while the leading vendors prance
Each seeking the advantage in this latest wireless dance
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
    The wireless market's growing fast and who will be the champ?
    The lobbying goes on to see who now will join which camp
    In this dance and whirligig, are end-users there perchance?
    'Cause this is for them, the vendors swear, as they prolong the dance
    Will they, won't they, will they, won't they, will they join the dance?
©Jim Pinto
24 September 2007


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