Articles by Rob Enderle

The current generation of smartphones is a bit of a kludge. They require a lot of text entry, but most don't have keyboards. As a result, they generally suck at it. Siri, Apple's new voice-command technology, points the way to a future that is more like the past, where phones are good at what phones have always been good at -- voice -- and typing may become, at least on smartphones, a thing of the past. ...

The industry joke on the early MacBook Airs was that even though they had decent Intel processors, they stepped down in performance in order to keep from burning up. What was kind of funny was that Lenovo, which had a similar product in market with a slower processor but running at full speed (so it was actually faster), got dinged -- and Apple didn't. However, most folks I knew who had one of these early Airs quickly tired of their slow speed and blazing hot bottoms, and moved to other products -- mostly MacBook Pros. ...

I ran into a new forward-looking video from Microsoft last week that showcases a number of Microsoft technologies as they might be used a decade from now. Intel produced a video a few years ago, equally compelling, showcasing a future based on its technology; unfortunately, it hasn't been able to demonstrate a single design win yet that indicates it is on that path. This got me thinking of a Philips video (unfortunately I don't have a link) in the 1990s that basically predicted the iPhone -- a device it never actually made. ...

With the U.S. elections ramping up and IBM's 100-year anniversary event in New York focusing like a laser on what makes a good leader, I'm finding it hard not to compare both the incumbent and Republican challengers to the top leaders in technology and find them wanting. Recently, I listened to Sir Richard Branson, one of the most well-regarded ...

Google's earnings knocked one out of the park last week but in other areas, things aren't going as well. Over the last few weeks, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt had to testify in front of Congress that Google wasn't like Microsoft, and the rules that applied to that company didn't apply to his. Evidently unhappy with just cornering the Web advert...

With Steve Jobs' passing, last week was a sad one for the technology industry, which owes much of its current success to him and will remain forever diminished by this event. Even as people talk about his uniqueness, they also don't seem to get that he can't be replaced like you would replace a shoe or a shirt. Teams are complex, and the team that ran Apple was uniquely successful and powerful. Without Jobs, it is diminished; we just don't know how much yet...

Last week was another big week for technology as Amazon announced a new line of Kindles and Microsoft released its Mango product into the wild. Many of us are thinking these products target Google's gains and missed opportunities more than they do Apple's. I'll share my thoughts on the potential for these products and why Google, rather than Apple, may be the initial target...

Last decade, Steve Jobs was the clear leader, and he ended the decade as the top CEO. We are early in this decade, but already Sam Palmisano has jumped out to an early lead. Like Jobs, it isn't because he is lobbying for this title -- it is because he is already being recognized by peers as being the best there is. Interestingly, this came thr...

Carol Bartz recently showcased what happens to CEOs who don't meet expectations -- and, given Yahoo's board may be fired as well, what can happen if a board acts too slowly. Steve Ballmer has been under fire for some time for underperforming as CEO, but one hit could change him from bozo to star if it is big enough, and Windows 8 is big enough. I'll share my thoughts on Windows 8 and the Intel Ultrabook hardware that could make it into a market star, and what Steve Ballmer could do to either ensure it wins or ensure it loses this week. ...

Carol Bartz got fired last week -- the Yahoo Board handled it badly, and she went ugly. Steve Ballmer is also seen as a failure both inside and outside Microsoft, and it is widely held that the only reason he hasn't been fired is that he and his best friend, Bill Gates, own the Microsoft Board. On an even larger scale, President Obama's approva...

We have crazy months from time to time, but August will likely go down in history as one of the biggest tech news months of any year. From the torpedoing of Android by Google, to the off-again, on-again TouchPad sales, to the departure of Steve Jobs, to the slashing of Oracle's US$1.3 billion settlement, to the... Well I'll get to all this in a ...

It is amazing to me the number of people I know who are basically saying Steve Jobs (some wonderful quotes from him here) leaving Apple will not change Apple. Most saw what Apple was like with Jobs, have seen that no similar company has been able to repeat what Apple has done over the last decade, and have seen both Microsoft after Gates and Disney after Walt. They even saw what happened to Dell during the short time Michael stepped down. But Jobs, who is even more hands on than the most-micro manager any of us know, will pass without a ripple. Wow -- now that is a reality distortion field.

Last week's announcement of Google's plans to acquire Motorola -- Googorola -- created a massive change for Android licensees. They are now looking for alternatives, tossing the biggest smartphone platform into flux and increasing the interest in what will happen to RIM -- with specific emphasis on its QNX platform. As if that weren't enough, sp...

I've been covering video conferencing (now often called "telepresence") products since the late 80s and saw my first offering in the mid-60s as a child at Disneyland. Over the years, product wave after product wave has come to market with the promise of the next big thing in telecommunications only to fail to meet even reasonable expectations for deployment in a market where users are measured in billions. ...

Last week was kind of an amazing week. Google's chief counsel earned himself a new title: chief whining officer. He tried to blame Microsoft, Apple and Oracle (missed EMC) as companies that were colluding to force Google to stop stealing other people's stuff. Google's whiny argument made me wonder if anyone over there actually reads what they write. ...

The two things I found particularly interesting last week were the continued focus on the U.S. government's inability to live within its means and Scott Adams, the father of Dilbert, accepting the Windows Phone 7 challenge. The first continues to piss me off because both sides seem to be unable to grasp the need to actually live within a budget, and the second provides a much-needed chuckle and some attention to what is likely the most underappreciated operating system in the market. ...

I'm in the midst of doing the biggest tablet review I've ever attempted, and I have to admit I'm rather impressed with a number of the Android offerings. The funny thing is, the ones closest to the phone work the best, suggesting there is a bit of a Windows XP/Vista event going on in this space. While I was doing this, I was sent a link to a Goo...

This last week was filled with events that made me wonder how many of our leaders had sent their brains to wacky land. On the political front, the U.S. president, our president, threatened financial default and elderly folks on fixed social security incomes in order to get the U.S. credit limit raised. Threatening old defenseless folks always works so very well, and the collapse of the U.S. credit rating would do wonders (he says sarcastically) for the U.S. recovery. ...

Last week, Facebook launched its video chat, and it once again reminded me that CEOs really should read the book Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, because Zuckerberg was really boring. Saying that this was going to be an "awesome" announcement and showcasing basic video chat and group text chat was, and I'm being kind, disappointing. Still, Facebook does have something amazing here -- I just don't think it's worked out yet. But I do think this is the beginning of something big. ...

I just came back from Dell's financial analyst meeting, and the firm is doing amazingly well. That wasn't the way it was a few years ago when folks were calling for a shakeup at the top. Michael Dell, along with an excellent team, turned the firm around, and he kind of did it by channeling Steve Jobs. Last week, Steve Ballmer had to respond to c...