Articles by Rob Enderle

Here in Silicon Valley, otherwise known as drama central, we live for conspiracy theories, have vampire CEOs who are rewarded for bleeding their companies dry, and even have executives who have their own fighter planes and are at war with each other. You would think we would have a few good, though probably fictional, conspiracy theories as well. ...

At one time, HP was such a nice, quiet company. It was a relatively steady firm known for loyal employees, solid ethics, and products you could trust but not necessarily get excited about (unless you loved calculators and were part of the pocket protector set). While I think excitement is grand, I'm thinking there are a lot of folks at HP who are wishing for the old days. National scandals, out of control CEOs, and blossoming wars have defined Silicon Valley's last decade -- and if last week is an indicator, this decade will be even more exciting.

The entire future of a company or industry can hinge on one little deal. The US$50,000 IBM paid to license Windows was the foundation for Microsoft and the technology industry for the last couple of decades. Apple's licensing contract with Portal Player to create the iPod was nearly as big -- and certainly huge for that company. The sale of 3Par could also be one of those pivotal deals, as huge firms like HP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell, VMware, Cisco and EMC position themselves around the new "cloud" opportunity. ...

This week, Apple is expected to announce a refresh of several iPod products (including the touch) and possibly the Apple TV. The real drama remains with its higher-profile offerings -- the iPhone and iPad -- and last week, Qualcomm gave a credible look at their compelling future. However, with phones running on Google's Android platform passin...

I just finished both reading The Big Lie, a fabulous book if you are into board room dynamics and disasters, and doing massive coverage on the HP Mark Hurd scandal. It is, however, a little unnerving to see some of the most powerful people in the world behave worse than six-year-olds My own management training forces a process that focuses on the ...

I spent last week on Mark Hurd's firing, er involuntary resignation, and watched the backstory develop, and it isn't pretty. Hurd was likely the third-hardest guy to fire in Silicon Valley behind Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison -- and yet, at least initially, he seemed to be fired as a result of a false accusation of sexual harassment leading to a global WTF moment.

Last week, there was uproar about a rumored secret negotiation between Google and Verizon that, if successful, would result in Google customers getting better bandwidth. At the core of this controversy are three things: a lack of adequate action by the sitting administration; a lack of consistent definition of the concept of "Net neutrality," an...

Last week, Microsoft held its Financial Analyst Meeting (FAM). Companies hold these to showcase their offerings and initiatives to the analysts that take positions on the firm, and given how regularly Apple and Google have appeared to be kicking Microsoft around lately, it is well past time Microsoft got up and told its own story. So I figure i...

As I'm writing this, Microsoft is reporting a solid quarter with sales (or use) exceeding expectations significantly on four keystone products: Windows 7, Office 10, IE8, and the Xbox. While Steve Ballmer is clearly not performing at Steve Jobs' incredible levels, Microsoft continues to generate cash at a rate that most companies, states and countries don't seem to be able to approach. ...

There is a growing consensus that China will replace the U.S. as the world's leading superpower in this century, just as the U.S. replaced Great Britain in last one. In the last century, it was the difference between world commerce and manufacturing capacity that mattered; now, the shift could actually be tied to technological advancement in areas like transportation and electrical power. ...

When Apple brings out a new phone, my advice typically is to wait a couple of months for the problems to surface, and then they will either be fixed or known and you can make a more educated decision. However we haven't seen the number of problems with the latest iPhone since, well, ever. ...

One of the things that bothers me about technology companies -- and I could start with Apple and end up with Google -- is that freedom is often part of what we give up when we buy their products. This can range from having to manage too many things, to being locked into a platform, to having no say about how our valuable personal information is used. We live in a world of increasing technology slavery, and since many of us are celebrating a day off to remember the establishment of freedom in the U.S., I thought this topic would be interesting. ...

President Obama's approval rating is in the toilet, and his recent firing of his lead general in Afghanistan suggests his approval inside his administration is likely not much better than we see outside Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, has been under fire for a while now and seems unable to get out from under stories of his impending replacement. ...

If you've been following the BP oil spill, you've seen that things haven't been going well for BP. The cost of the cleanup will likely bankrupt the firm, leaving the U.S. and individuals to pick up the slack. So, rather than assuring that doesn't happen, a bunch of rocket scientists, and I'm being sarcastic, have decided to speed up the bankruptcy by driving a boycott. ...

Watching BP try to plug the biggest oil spill in history while staging photo ops for the media feels like watching a new definition of evil unfold -- until the realization sets in that we're likely watching the death of a company. "Evil" has been used to describe Microsoft, and Google wrote it into its mission statement as something it wouldn't d...

Last week, Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization for a number of reasons. I agree with Gary Marshall, who argues in "Apple beats Microsoft? Not so fast, Fanboys" that the two companies aren't even in the same race. I'd even add that the only reason Apple moved ahead in valuation is because we don't count stock owned by employees, and Bill alone has around US$40 billion of that. ...

I've been using Office 2010 for several weeks now, and I actually have gotten to the point where I'm finding it harder and harder to use Office 2007. However, I'm reminded of the problems -- both with this product and, to a lesser extent, Windows -- that are unique to Microsoft and have proven to be a bi..., er, very difficult, to correct. Go...

I'm clearly on some kind of twisted Wizard of Oz/magic jag at the moment but, as I said last week, I'm just not convinced people fully get why Apple is successful. However, this week there are some other things brewing. Apple seems to have suddenly become the "Litigation 'R' Us" company and every time I've seen this happen, it has ended badly. ...

One of the interesting things about watching Apple's rollout of the iPad and anticipating the rollout of its stunning generation 4 iPhone is that competitors don't seem to get what makes Apple successful. As a result, they have generally failed miserably to bring forward offerings that have done as well. I spent a lot of my life as a competitive...

Last week was a huge week for news surrounding smartphones and iPad-like tablets. I mentioned a few weeks ago how the market was moving to vertical integration, which was placing platforms like Android at risk, but I didn't expect HP to move this quickly by buying Palm and getting its own OS. In addition, the lawsuit from Apple targeting HTC...