Articles by Rob Enderle

After watching the first presidential debate, one person on that stage clearly showcased the leadership, focus and bipartisan attitude the U.S. needs to turn itself around. Unfortunately, Jim Lehrer isn't actually running, so it didn't help my own decision process much, and I remain decisively undecided at the moment. In watching the bailout last week, it became clear that tech is clearly at risk, and I was struck by the reality that were the U.S. a company, the CEO, CFO and chairman of the board (Speaker of the House) would likely have all been, and should have been, fired.

Last week was so ugly the economic conditions had me up on YouTube looking for things to put a smile on my face, and I found two -- one that has the "Pimp My Ride" folks pimping an IT shop with an Xbox (not some marketing group's best moment), and an HP ad spoof that has Steve Jobs selling HP computers. Increasingly lots of us are viewing these ads and other short videos on our phones, and that isn't all we are doing. E-mail, light document creation, and even a lot of gaming have moved over to cell phones...

Last week, HP's ex-CEO and current Republican Spokesperson Carly Fiorina, in a poorly thought-out attempt to help McCain win, indicated that none of the presidential or vice presidential hopefuls could be CEOs like she was Given she was fired, I was thinking, gee I hope so, but she intended the comment to mean they weren't as qualified as she was.

This last week I've watched Apple's stock drop sharply as the market was disappointed with Apple's announcements, but I thought it was being unfair because the disappointment was largely due to overset expectations In addition, Apple's move with the iPod nano was a very hard decision to make. Few companies would have the guts to make it, suggesting...

Election time is a crazy time here in the U.S. I'm fascinated by what happened when John McCain, the presidential candidate of the Republican Party, chose a woman that no one on the Democratic side clearly anticipated. In campaigns, people can say some rather hurtful things, and given the feelings surrounding Hillary Clinton's loss, really stupid things. The goal generally appears to be, on both sides, to say whatever it takes to win an election...

Two of my favorite attractions at Disneyland when I was growing up and working at the park, and which are no longer there, were the Carousel of Progress and the House of the Future Both showcased a future based on the thinking that was going on when I was born. They did this by creating models, miniatures of cities and full-sized representations of...

Last week was kind of amazing -- I knew a number of things that were going to be happening at IDF but was blindsided by an announcement Intel made that could change the world as we know it. Nikola Tesla turned over in his grave, and we are one step closer to his Tower of Power. Intel also fleshed out its Atom platform, which I think forms the basis of a new class of cloud computing-based client devices...

These were great games, and I particularly got a kick out of the initial U.S. swimming team win, which came in the face of the French team, who said they would "smash" us I couldn't help but draw a parallel from that to the Apple reaction I got from suggesting that Dell might be able to address a market need that Apple didn't on a project that I'd ...

Last week I thought it would be interesting -- given that both the Wall Street Journal and TechNewsWorld had covered my professional relationship with Dell regarding its new MP3 service -- to chat about what it would take to beat Apple. But in my analysis I left out one important thing: Apple is tricky. Already there are rumors of a redesigned iPod nano that would position well against this new Dell offering, and the Apple-funded sites seem to be aggressively trying to disparage this as-yet unborn product. Someone seems scared to death of this as-yet unborn product. (Note: I have not used the words "iPod Killer" myself, but Apple folks tend to be a little paranoid)...

It's been an interesting week. As if to prove the point of last week's column, Steve Jobs used his impressive skills to trick a New York Times reporter he didn't like into giving him a clean bill of health. This was brilliantly done, and there are some real lessons here that dovetail with last week's piece. The Wall Street Journal got wind of ...

It appears the latest iPhone isn't finished yet. The battery life and the problems with MobileMe have many favoring the older model (kind of like Vista vs. XP), but lines are still forming for the 3G version. This showcases both the amazing capabilities of brilliant marketing and the risks associated with applying it to the wrong product. In this case, at the core of this marketing is Steve Jobs...

I like writing about conflict because it gives you more than one dimension to a story, and there were two interesting conflicts that I ran into last week. The first, more near-term, will likely define the direction of the notebook market, and it is important because it implies an ether/or decision when most of us want both The other is the constant...

Sometimes it's the little things that can cause you to step back and rethink how you look at a company. For much of this decade Microsoft has been the "evil empire" with Apple, Linux and Google on the side of the Force (sorry for the "Star Wars" metaphor) With Microsoft actually doing some positive creative things for once, Apple's decision to rais...

There are many things to admire about Apple, but like every company it has a dark side. One of the things I personally find more than annoying is the Apple fan base that will attack you if you honestly don't want to buy an Apple product and talk about your choice. But the thing to be concerned about, because Apple is a company that others now emulate, is its increasing habit of tricking you into paying more than you thought you paid for its products.

A lot of us are focused on Microsoft and Bill Gates this month as Bill's last day at the company he founded and ran to dominance passed last Friday. I've met Bill several times but only really once spoken to him. From a personal aspect, he has mostly been cordial, and he once personally came to my rescue back when my career as an independent analyst first started, something I'll never forget. Something else I'll never forget was the Windows 95 launch, which in my mind and evidently his, was the high point for Microsoft.

Last week I was in Japan doing a deep dive on Panasonic, a firm I've observed for decades but never really got to know until recently. I've studied Apple in depth since the '80s and I find the contrasts between the firms and their key founders Konosuke Matsushita -- for whom Panasonic was originally named -- and Steve Jobs fascinating This trip hap...

I started off the week with dueling events: the Apple WWDC, where they talked about Snow Leopard and the second generation iPhone, HP's massive product announcement, and Microsoft's TechEd, where I learned more about Unlimited Vista (Windows 7) I was taken by the fact that Apple missed with the iPhone with the product coming late, incomplete and bl...

Last week was Computex but today everyone is focused on the likely launch of the iPhone. Given that some of the announcements at the show will have an impact on the future of devices like this, and that some of you will likely want to read something while standing in line, let's look at Computex vs. the iPhone, and as the details of the new iPhone become public you can compare the technology that was announced at Computex to what Apple is announcing with the iPhone...

Climbing to the top of the charts last week was a book titled, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. The stated purpose of this book is to showcase how politics in Washington turned a presidency that started as revolutionary into one that was a disaster. It's also a heads-up to McCain and Obama who, with similar ideals, may be blind to the fact that the Washington machine may change them more than either can change it. It tells a story of what can happen if folks focus too much on marketing and not enough on reality.

OK, this may seem like a huge stretch because I doubt there are any tech companies more different than EMC and Apple. However, I just spent several days at EMC World and I actually found one similarity: Both companies are focused like lasers on customer loyalty This goes beyond customer satisfaction and speaks to a process that ties their respectiv...