Lessons in Building Niche Hardware and Networks with Planet Computers' Marcus Taylor

In this episode of Nerding Out with Viktor, host Viktor Petersson sits down with Marcus Taylor, co-founder at Planet Computers and veteran of IBM, Logica, and the GSM Association. Marcus brings decades of experience across telecom, hardware, and secure systems.

The conversation traces his early work on natural language systems at IBM, his role in pioneering mobile commerce and ticketless travel in the 1990s, and his time advancing telco standards at the GSM Association. Taylor also shares how Erlang became the backbone of resilient systems powering WhatsApp, financial exchanges, and mission-critical infrastructure.

The episode dives into the creation of Planet Computers smartphones - niche, keyboard-first devices designed for journalists, engineers, and security professionals. Marcus discusses their unique multi-boot Android/Linux capability, industrial use cases, and how the company is expanding into network appliances and Industry 4.0 solutions.

For builders and product teams, this is a look at why specialized devices and resilient networks still matter in a consumer-driven world.