Your smartphone works because of this behind-the-scenes tech company

Bill Merritt knows what your smartphone will be capable of in the 2020s.

He’s not a psychic. But he is the CEO of InterDigital, a Wilmington-based research-oriented company founded to develop advanced wireless technologies.
The company was launched in the late 1970s. An engineer by trade, Merritt, 56, has been with InterDigital for nearly 20 years and has served as CEO since 2005.
InterDigital is currently working on 5G technology, which, he said, we can expect to see in our phones in about eight or 10 years.
“We think about the next generation of technology probably about 10 years before the product comes out,” Merritt told Technical.ly Delaware. “We associate ourselves with people with similar ideas. There’s an alignment between us on what we think the next technology will be.”

Bill Merritt. (Photo courtesy of Bill Merritt)

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When InterDigital begins work on the next generation of cell phone technology, its team of 300 employees (80 in the Wilmington headquarters) works relatively independently to research and understand what’s next.
After that, InterDigital — along with a host of multinational companies also focusing on the next generation of wireless technology — enters the “Standard Process,” which Merritt likened to creating a cookbook.
Different companies and thousands of engineers collaborate to create that “cookbook,” which ultimately becomes, if accepted by device creators like Apple and Microsoft, what companies will use to build the next generation of devices.
“This sort of convergence of cooperation and competition has done an unbelievable job of delivering superior technology,” Merritt said.
But what about the tension between collaboration and competition?
It benefits companies working to achieve the same goal to contribute to the same set of standards, Meritt said. So, in reality, the standard is competing with other standards, which could feature a different flavor of emerging technology.
“The result has been phenomenal in how far cellular technology has come in a relatively short amount of time,” Merritt said. “Ten years ago, we really couldn’t do more than talk and text.”

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InterDigital makes money with a two-step dance:

1. The company works with other engineers to help ensure its technology will be picked up.
2. If its standard is picked by the big device-makers, InterDigital can sell its technology to be included in the chip that goes into the device.

Sometimes InterDigital also produces software that is purchased by a company. In that case, InterDigital also gets to license its technology in those phones or tablets.
Ten years ago, for instance, InterDigital sold its technology to a chip company. That company didn’t have expertise in creating the technology for the chip, but InterDigital did. That chip was later included in the first 3G iPhone, Merritt said.
“We get our ideas in the cookbook. They build their products using the cookbook. And they use your invention,” Merritt said. “Everyone builds from the same cookbook.”
Merritt said his company continues to stay focused on researching the next big thing in cellular technology.

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Making the move from Philadelphia to Wilmington in 2012, he added, has been a boon for the company.
“Folks in Delaware reached out to us,” Merritt said. “It’s a great work environment here. It’s a phenomenally business-friendly environment and a great place to draw talent from.”
Merritt said the company frequently hosts college students and provides a hearty internship program. The organization also recently pledged funding to the Delaware Children’s Museum Junior Engineers Program to boost STEM education.