As someone mentioned, this is a different Bell Laboratories, but even the AT&T spinoff isn't part of AT&T anymore. Bell Labs is now Nokia Bell Labs.
AT&T spun off their technology unit (Bell Labs and Western Electric) as Lucent Technologies way back in 1996. If you're old enough, you may have seen phones that said "Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs Innovations". Lucent was bought by the French company Alcatel to create Alcatel-Lucent in 2006. Alcatel-Lucent was bought by Nokia in 2016. So now we have Nokia Bell Labs. Since 1996, we've seen Bell Labs change hands once a decade so maybe next year we'll see a new owner of Bell Labs.
I kinda agree that it seems like a great trademark, but it just never went anywhere. AT&T flubbed its early lead in computing, Unix-like operating systems were pushed by others, and any association with the future that the Bell Labs trademark had just faded. Nostalgically, I love the trademark. But I wouldn't think that anything coming from Bell Labs was cutting edge tech that I wanted (as a consumer, sys admin, or software engineer; in the same way that Nokia makes some great wireless networking hardware, but they aren't making something that I want).
I'm not saying that AT&T and Bell Labs didn't have a huge impact on computing. Bell Labs gave us Unix and C. But it's been a long time since Bell Labs was associated with the next big thing in computing - or the next big thing that anyone wants if they're not coming from the standpoint of telecom infrastructure.
Sometimes companies that were incredibly important just fade away - and their trademarks with them. Motorola and Nokia were once synonymous with cutting edge mobile devices. Today, Nokia has exited the mobile device market and Motorola is a Lenovo brand and a tiny player. Yes, for some years HMD Global bought the rights to the Nokia name from Microsoft (who had the rights for 10 years), but that's now expired and the devices are now HMD branded. Bell Labs just kinda faded away despite us remembering it fondly alongside our Polaroid cameras and Nokia phones.
sam_lowry_ · 2h ago
I buy Motorola phones since many years as they have minimal UI changes on top of AOSP.
Nokia phones were a great source of Android One phones a few years ago as well.
bsimpson · 3h ago
For those who haven't clicked through the article, the "Bell Labs" in question is apparently the maker of literal mousetraps; not the legend in telecom innovation you're thinking of.
cronelius · 3h ago
ben thompson and ryan kernighan and bob pike would be proud
rvz · 2h ago
Not the Bell Labs you think it is. Unless you are in to "Rodent Control Technology"
1. bell-labs.com - Unix System V, C,
2. belllabs.com - Rodent control tech.
Berkshire bought (2).
moritzwarhier · 2h ago
Sounds wise in multiple ways.
Like seriously, 2. alone seems like a futureproof business. Imagine the rat plagues when housing and plumbing have become completely unaffordable to renters, with no regulations for landlords!
Must be a trove of gold!
aanet · 2h ago
Too funny!
Better mousetraps, now part of Berkshire Hathaway
turnsout · 3h ago
I guess this is a joke post, but it was pretty funny to click through to the article and be greeted with a popup that asks what type of pest control news you'd be most interested in receiving
Edit: This appears to be a joke post because this is not the Bell Labs most people are thinking of.
I'm wondering where this company got its name. It looks like it was founded by a guy named Malcolm Stack, who must have something to do with Stack Overflow.
em3rgent0rdr · 1h ago
Surprised no one has registered bellllabs.com to continue the joke.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_33466...
AT&T spun off their technology unit (Bell Labs and Western Electric) as Lucent Technologies way back in 1996. If you're old enough, you may have seen phones that said "Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs Innovations". Lucent was bought by the French company Alcatel to create Alcatel-Lucent in 2006. Alcatel-Lucent was bought by Nokia in 2016. So now we have Nokia Bell Labs. Since 1996, we've seen Bell Labs change hands once a decade so maybe next year we'll see a new owner of Bell Labs.
I kinda agree that it seems like a great trademark, but it just never went anywhere. AT&T flubbed its early lead in computing, Unix-like operating systems were pushed by others, and any association with the future that the Bell Labs trademark had just faded. Nostalgically, I love the trademark. But I wouldn't think that anything coming from Bell Labs was cutting edge tech that I wanted (as a consumer, sys admin, or software engineer; in the same way that Nokia makes some great wireless networking hardware, but they aren't making something that I want).
I'm not saying that AT&T and Bell Labs didn't have a huge impact on computing. Bell Labs gave us Unix and C. But it's been a long time since Bell Labs was associated with the next big thing in computing - or the next big thing that anyone wants if they're not coming from the standpoint of telecom infrastructure.
Sometimes companies that were incredibly important just fade away - and their trademarks with them. Motorola and Nokia were once synonymous with cutting edge mobile devices. Today, Nokia has exited the mobile device market and Motorola is a Lenovo brand and a tiny player. Yes, for some years HMD Global bought the rights to the Nokia name from Microsoft (who had the rights for 10 years), but that's now expired and the devices are now HMD branded. Bell Labs just kinda faded away despite us remembering it fondly alongside our Polaroid cameras and Nokia phones.
Nokia phones were a great source of Android One phones a few years ago as well.
1. bell-labs.com - Unix System V, C,
2. belllabs.com - Rodent control tech.
Berkshire bought (2).
Like seriously, 2. alone seems like a futureproof business. Imagine the rat plagues when housing and plumbing have become completely unaffordable to renters, with no regulations for landlords!
Must be a trove of gold!
Better mousetraps, now part of Berkshire Hathaway
Edit: This appears to be a joke post because this is not the Bell Labs most people are thinking of.