Rob Enderle quotes

Apple has recently done more with the tablet format with the iPod Touch and iPhone then any other vendor but the jury is still largely out on this format with challenging devices from RIM, Palm, and Google often showcasing that keyboards are necessary. (Rob Enderle)
2006, at least after August['s Vista release], will be great time for buyers and sellers of PC hardware and that has to be a good thing for everyone - except Apple. View quote
Rob Enderle
Often, firms that were successful start to fail after a successful CEO departs, largely because they spent little time mentoring the successor in making successful decisions. ... I think we are seeing this play out at Apple at the moment ... View quote
Rob Enderle
At scale, [Microsoft] is likely the only company offering a cloud solution that is truly robust enough to be trusted in what has become an incredibly unsafe world. View quote
Rob Enderle
Intel has a long an ugly history of behaving unethically, mostly against competitors like AMD and more recently Qualcomm (its partner in this, Apple, was just highlighted as being basically anti-innovation). View quote
Rob Enderle
[W]hen Apple wanted the name "iPhone" and it was owned by Cisco, Steve Jobs just took it, and his legal team executed so he could keep it. It turned out that doing this was surprisingly inexpensive. And, as the Apple Watch showcased, the Apple Phone likely would not have sold anywhere near as well as the iPhone. View quote
Rob Enderle
[I]t seems pretty clear why this class of product [Apple Watch] is languishing. ... But, with products like the LG Watch Sport the market may finally be coming around to a winner. View quote
Rob Enderle
[Google's] coming blend of Android and Chrome, coupled with Apple's move to emulate Surface, could result in a devastating outcome for Apple. ... I'm reading rumors that Apple is creating an Amazon Echo clone and I think it will be the world's next Zune. Ironically, this would likely make Ballmer really happy because the ghost of Sun Tzu will stop slapping him around and start focusing on Tim Cook. View quote
Rob Enderle
[Tablets] have not risen to expectations. Apple, the lead market maker in the category, has recently flipped from an emerging market strategy to a cash cow strategy with its latest reduced-price iPad offering, suggesting it now believes that tablets are on life support. View quote
Rob Enderle
I do think it is likely a tad frustrating for Gates to watch his own company pivot and be successful with new initiatives while Apple gets a huge valuation even though its latest efforts have underperformed or, like the HomePod, largely failed in market. View quote
Rob Enderle
Today's tech companies aren't built to last, as Apple's recent earnings report shows all too well. (Rob Enderle)
[The iPhone]'s clearly going to start a wave towards a new technology - as I say, I'm not convinced that Apple's going to be able to ride this wave. View quote
Rob Enderle
The cause of [Apple v. Qualcomm] appears to be an effort by Apple to pressure Qualcomm into providing a unique discount, largely because Apple has run into an innovation wall, is under increased competition from firms like Samsung, and has moved to a massive cost reduction strategy. (I've never known this to end well, as it causes suppliers to create unreliable components and outright fail.) View quote
Rob Enderle
iPhone 7 - We will again watch people line up to buy an iconic product that is only marginally better than the paid-for product they already have. ... We'll smile, nod our heads, and ask Siri to remind us to check to see if our medical plan covers mental health. View quote
Rob Enderle
Frankly, it has frustrated me for years to watch Apple's success - while traditional bumbling PC companies continue to ignore the obvious point that yes, design and presentation actually do matter. View quote
Rob Enderle
Microsoft fully understands it can't beat Apple, Amazon or Google by chasing them, but it can beat them if it both revisits its old embrace and extend strategy, and then pulls a Steve Jobs to change the market. View quote
Rob Enderle
[W]hen it came to the iWatch, also a name that Apple didn't own, Apple walked away from it and instead launched the Apple Watch. Certainly, no risk of litigation, but the product's sales are a fraction of what they otherwise might have been with the proper name and branding. View quote
Rob Enderle
Steve Jobs set Carly Fiorina up over a decade ago. He used compliments and empty promises to make sure HP never brought to market an iPod competitor and, while it isn't certain that HP would have been successful, had it been, Apple likely wouldn't be around today, and Fiorina lost her job partially as a result of that scam. View quote
Rob Enderle
Steve Jobs is the Ronald McDonald of Apple, he is the face. View quote
Rob Enderle
[T]he litigation between Qualcomm and Apple/Intel ... is weird. What makes it weird is that Intel appears to think that by helping Apple drive down Qualcomm prices, it will gain an advantage, but since its only value is as a lower cost, lower performing, alternative to Qualcomm's modems, the result would be more aggressively priced better alternatives to Intel's offerings from Qualcomm/Broadcom, wiping Intel out of the market. On paper, this is a lose/lose for Intel and even for Apple. The lower prices would flow to Apple competitors as well, lowering the price of competing phones. So, Apple would not get a lasting benefit either. View quote
Rob Enderle
With phones moving to technologies such as Apple Pay, an unwillingness to assure security could create a Target-like exposure that wipes Apple out of the market. (Rob Enderle)
Apple tends to aggressively work to not discover problems with products that are shipped and certainly not talk about them. View quote
Rob Enderle
Apple no longer owns the tablet market, and will likely lose dominance this year or next. ... this level of sustained dominance doesn't appear to recur with the same vendor even if it launched the category. View quote
Rob Enderle
Donald [Trump] has been branded by one of his competitors as a con artist and, in a sense, he is. But so was Steve Jobs. View quote
Rob Enderle
[Hedge fund investment] is likely behind the very different behavior you are seeing in companies like HP and Apple this decade. A severe lack of new products or compelling offerings, but a lot of increases in dividends, stock buybacks, layoffs, plant closings, executive departures and divestitures. These firms aren't investing in the future they are constantly trying to assure their stock is propped up and the value increases. View quote
Rob Enderle