Innovation drives America’s reinvention

[Commentary] It is bizarre to come back to London after seven years in New York to find the UK struggling to launch 4G high-speed mobile services and European companies lagging behind the US. When I moved homes in 2005, Europe was far ahead of the US in 3G and Nokia, and Research In Motion of Canada were the biggest smartphone makers. Meanwhile, the US agonized over its energy crisis – it depended on the Middle East for oil and faced the need to import liquefied natural gas. Since then, America’s talent for technological innovation has risen to both challenges. It has seized the lead in mobile broadband – Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile have 65 per cent of the global market, versus 5 per cent in 2005 – and launched 4G services before others. Fracking and horizontal drilling for natural gas, invented in the US, could support its energy needs for 100 years.