Articles by Rob Enderle

Last week, I attended the Dell advisory council meeting and the week before, a similar Hewlett-Packard event. These gave me a chance to look at how both companies are approaching similar problems and to observe that both are demonstrating improving capabilities Of course, Apple doesn't do advisory councils because it doesn't even trust its employe...

Last week Hewlett-Packard, which is expected to pass IBM as the largest high-tech company in the world this year, put its new CEO on stage, and much of the behind-the-scenes discussion was on why Mark Hurd has been successful while predecessor Carly Fiorina crashed and burned Meanwhile, over at Microsoft there was one rising star who stood out abov...

Last week was a busy one for some big tech players. AOL is funding Netscape again, and strangely enough the company seems to have Slashdot on its mind as it moves to rebuild its portal business Also, Creative Labs evidently didn't realize that Apple was going to fight back when it sued the firm, and the situation escalated when Creative moved to st...

Boy, the hits just keep on coming. Last week was no exception, with moves that further put to rest the idea that the tech market is dull and boring Dell released four products in Los Angeles, two of which are some of the most aggressive ever to come from that company. Hewlett-Packard launched another 100 products -- though the story wasn't the prod...

One nice thing about this job is that tons of products get sent to me throughout the year. Some of these things are really cool, and some probably aren't worth the postage it took to send them. With college and high school graduation season in full swing and Father's Day on the horizon, I thought I'd share some info on a few technology products that I think might make an ideal gift for that special someone...

Last week I was in Dubai and, much like when I went to Beijing to visit Lenovo a few months ago, I was surprised at the incredible progress and Western influence that is currently evident in this region. I'm also forced to compare the advancements there to the lack of progress in the United States. It makes me wonder whether the U.S. will become the new Third World one day if we don't do something dramatic to improve our own competitiveness...

For the last two weeks I've been talking about desktop operating systems, including why Linux is on the wrong path to be a true desktop operating system and comparing Linux to Windows Vista and Mac OS Leopard, where I concluded that Apple will have in 2008 the best opportunity in its history to grow share Both pieces briefly alluded to what will l...

I mentioned last week that I was planning to attend the Linspire-sponsored Linux Desktop Summit where the discussion would include reasons the folks who build PCs don't want to do Linux. Indeed, some of the commentary at the event related to Microsoft and its vulnerability when it comes to large business and government accounts because: Its produc...

This week I'm speaking at the Desktop Linux Summit in San Diego on why the PC OEMs don't, and probably never will, fully support Linux on the desktop. This is somewhat of a deja vu for me since a decade ago my team made a similar presentation at IBM on OS/2 and why it wouldn't beat Windows in its time. For the purpose of this piece I'm using the word "Linux" as an open source OS catch-all so I don't have to call out every distribution or variant...

Last week I visited Hewlett-Packard's lab to see what they have in the works. Lab tours are one of the nice perks of this job. A few months ago I got to see Intel's rather extensive future lineup, and weeks ago I also witnessed Sun Microsystems' rather disappointing event It was clear that Sun had cut its research budget substantially because that ...

Last week,Apple became a tentative Windows platform OEM with its announcement of Boot Camp, which allows new Machardware to run Windows XP and, eventually, Vista. Apple had said it wasn't planning to support Windows -- just like it said it didn't plan to supportIntel or bring out flash-based media players Take note: When Apple announces something i...

I spent a lot of time last week reading the Microsoft employee blogs and apparently there is some reasonably strong feeling among many folks who work there that the wrong "Steve" is running the company. This is, in my view, a "grass is greener on the other side of the fence" type of perception -- since "the other Steve," Jobs, that is, is neither known for being a good software guy nor being anywhere near as employee-focused as Microsoft's executives are. He does, however, have skills that Microsoft could use desperately right now...

In the midst of the Game Developer's conference in San Jose, Calif., last week, Microsoft announced that Windows Vista would miss its do-not-miss date. Then, Dell, which does not typically do acquisitions, bought the premier gaming PC builder Alienware. Each event has within it the potential to incite massive change The Gaming Battles...

Blogs are providing an unprecedented look inside organizations in the Internet age. Via blogs run by current and former employees and associates we can now see aspects of major technology companies that otherwise would only be visible to a few insiders While it is fun to position these companies against one another for sport. Looking at the histo...

Last week,Intel held its Developer Conference, an annual event where the company showcases the changes it plans to make in its next-gen products. WithMicrosoft's new operating system due to hit the market in a few short months, Intel planned more dramatic changes this year than would typically be the case Thanks to its new ties with Apple, we got a...

Three bits of news got me thinking about personal computers last week. The first was the "surprise" announcement from Apple that it was getting into speakers and, yawn, building an Intel-based Mac Mini. The second was Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) settlement with Gateway (NYSE: GTW), and the third was the "secret" Microsoft Origami project, which most got wrong in initial reports...

Last week a number of surprising issues flared in the press First, IBM says it is now aggressively going after SCO's funding sources to see where the bodies are buried, so to speak; an IDC report puts Windows ahead of Unix for the first time since, well, ever; and Apple's OS, considered the "secure" platform, has three virus alerts out on it, one o...

We are constantly manipulated by statistics, some from the government, some from vendors, often from those we trust. However, sometimes those parties are not worthy of that trust. Sometimes they are being manipulated themselves and so the figures they present can be dangerously misleading Given how often we are manipulated by statistics it would se...

A lot of interesting things happened last week. RIM finally released its plan to work around NTP's patents, Google decided to use some of the massive amount of cash it got from investors to buy real estate on desktop PCs, and ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina stepped back into the limelight, talking about how she screwed up at the company. After all that, it's hard not to feel somewhat dizzy...

A few years ago the music player device space was incredibly boring. The Sony Walkman CD player was the last big thing in music players, and it had long since become irrelevant. Products from RIO, which was going through a bankruptcy, and Creative Labs were anything but exciting. Then, from left field a PC company, Apple Computer, entered the marketplace with its iTunes MP3 players. The rest is history...