Rob Enderle

It often strikes me how few times vendor decision makers actually talk to the people who use their products. I don’t mean talk to the people who buy them, but talk to the people who actually have to fire the things up and use them to get a job done. A recent piece in the […]

Google has correctly assessed Microsoft’s weaknesses with Windows in its Chrome OS attack. But having a good strategy doesn’t assure success — it is simply more difficult to achieve success without a good strategy. Much like Microsoft was with projects like Zune (and Netscape was with its attempt at an enterprise offering) Google appears unwilling […]

There are several paths that Oracle could take to fully utilize the assets they are acquiring from Sun to become more dominant. The most obvious is to simply become a platform vendor and sell off the hardware to HP, Dell, or Lenovo in exchange for cash and a stronger strategic relationship with the company they […]

I spent much of last week at EMC’s annual analyst event, and much of the breaking news this week appears to be on speculation surrounding Apple pulling out of MacWorld. The problem for Apple is the increasing belief that Steve Jobs will soon be departing the company. At Apple, quality appears to be driven largely […]

The current political climate is awash with the concept of change, with both parties in the U.S. having running on that platform (one, clearly, more successfully than the other). Typically people don’t like change, but when you scare the crap out of them – as will be done as the economic collapse removes one in […]

Here in the US frustration is running high because we can’t seem to get our elected representatives to do much more than blame each other for the mess the country – and increasingly the world – is in. But from crisis often comes great innovation, and during the latest presidential debate I heard one answer […]

Part of what makes the iPhone special, other than its impressive number of problems this year, is the fact that it promises a near no compromise Web experience on a phone-sized device. (Granted, “phone size” seems to be drifting a bit larger these days.) The 2.0 iPhone has had an impressive start but seems to […]

Apple is an expert at social engineering. They, and specifically Steve Jobs, can build product feeding frenzies unlike any company I’ve ever covered. I can still recall the first iPod which sold in surprising numbers that first Christmas and had the highest return rate of any product I’ve ever seen because most who got it […]

Most of us have likely been thinking of two things this last week: gas prices that are quickly reaching ridiculous levels and Apple’s new iPhone, which likely will change the way many of us communicate. The gas prices have a lot of companies reconsidering how they do business and focusing on things like Telepresence as […]

Don’t get too excited: I’m not lobbying against the iPhone. However, given that you are likely to be inundated with Apple marketing I figured it might be a good time to refresh what the problems with the device initially will be – and for folks to realize that no product is perfect for every person. […]

The iPhone as a media event is a wonderful thing but to an IT manager it is Satan Spawned. This is because it is one of those devices and a large number of employees are likely to buy and bring to the enterprise begging, or in the case of executives, demanding support. But we don’t […]

There is nothing more indicative of change than the recently announced partnership between Novell and Microsoft. Unlike the Sun partnership, which seemed to be more about Sun getting money from Microsoft than anything truly material, this one has teeth and addresses the critical needs of both companies and the customers who use their products. It […]