This, That, and The Other

The year was 2001 and the tech industry was in freefall. Carl was the first of the three to suffer a layoff. Shortly thereafter, his two best friends, Ben and Aaron, were also laid off from their jobs. Such was life in the days after the dotcom bubble burst.

But Carl and his pals were not the types to just sit around grousing about how life was so unfair. They were men of action, and soon after each of them found themselves without jobs, they decided to get together as a tripartite and to start their own business.

“We need to strike while the iron is hot,” Carl said. Under these circumstances, we can’t afford to be tardy bringing whatever we come up with to market,” he added.

“Let’s see if we can devise an idea for something that people who have been laid off, like us, really need,” Ben said.

“And, by definition, it needs to be something they can afford,” Aaron said.

“Yeah, that’s a given,” Carl said. “Anyone have any ideas?”

“How about a multifunctional gadget of some sort?” Ben asked.

“I’ve got an idea,” Aaron said. “Maybe we can create a cellphone that can access the internet, surf the web, send and receive email and text messages, has a camera, and on which you can play games.”

“That sounds fantastic, Aaron,” Carl said, “but doesn’t the BlackBerry do a lot of that?”

“The BlackBerry is basically a souped up cellphone with email and texting capabilities,” Aaron said. “No camera, no internet access for web surfing, no games. “I’m talking about developing the next level communications device.”

“Hey, I know Steve Jobs from my days at NeXT,” Ben said. “Now that he’s back at Apple, this is something he might be interested in investing in.”

“Great!” Carl said. “Can you reach out to him and set up a meeting?”

This little bit of fictional history was written for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (layoff), Your Daily Word Prompt (tripartite), Jibber Jabber (hot), Word of the Day Challenge (tardy), The Daily Spur (definition), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (gadget).