7″ Media Tablets Like Kindle Fire…”Dead On Arrival”?

UPDATED with Amazon Kindle “Fire” references. A few weeks ago, TechCrunch reported that Amazon’s 7″ Kindle tablet was “very real” and would ship for the 2011 holidays.  (UPDATED: Now rumored to be called “Kindle Fire“.  ) Almost a year before that, Wired’s Brian Chen reported that on an earnings call, Jobs said, “the current crop of … Continue reading 7″ Media Tablets Like Kindle Fire…”Dead On Arrival”?

Is there a market for Good Enough “Tablets?”

In April I wrote in my PC Mag column about Amazon Stealing Android from Google and argued in this piece that Amazon was most likely building their own proprietary approach to integrating their overall Android Store and a set of music, video and cloud services and integrate it into their future tablet offering. Then, in … Continue reading Is there a market for Good Enough “Tablets?”

Why non- iPad Tablets Aren’t Selling Well is Fundamental

So why aren’t non-iPad tablets selling as well as the iPad? I read a very interesting article Wednesday from James Kendrick at ZDNet. His contention is that one of the biggest issues is competing with Apple’s “consistent marketing experience”. I agree that’s a big issue, but I think there’s an even more basic core issue … Continue reading Why non- iPad Tablets Aren’t Selling Well is Fundamental

Why Tablets Won’t Cannibalize Laptop Sales – Yet at Least

If any of you have gone out to buy a laptop computer lately, you may have asked yourself “do I need a laptop or could I get by with a tablet?” We know from our research that this question is top of mind with a lot of consumers these days as tablets have really clouded … Continue reading Why Tablets Won’t Cannibalize Laptop Sales – Yet at Least

HP’s TouchPad-Can it compete with Apple’s iPad and Android Tablets?

Over the last few weeks I have spent a lot of time testing out two new tablets that are now on the market. The first is the Samsung 10.1” Galaxy Tab and the second is the new Palm TouchPad. Up until these two tablets came out it was clear to me that Apple pretty much … Continue reading HP’s TouchPad-Can it compete with Apple’s iPad and Android Tablets?

Do Consumers Want Tablets or iPads?

John Paczkowski, over at the All Things D blog, wrote an interesting article titled “Consumers Don’t Want Tablets, They Want iPads.” I encourage you to read it, it was a good read with some good statistics from Bernstein Research on tablet brand awareness and form factor preference. In terms of where the market is today … Continue reading Do Consumers Want Tablets or iPads?

The Tech Industry Build Out Cycle

One of the more interesting conversations to be happening around the tech industry currently is what kind of a cycle we are in? In the last few years, I’ve noticed an interesting tension that emerged because, as a whole, the tech industry has just come off a period of significant rapid invention and innovation. From … Continue reading The Tech Industry Build Out Cycle

M&A Activity Reflect AR’s Bright Enterprise Future

While consumer-focused augmented reality continues to be a bit of a slow burn in terms of interest and adoption, on the enterprise side of things, the technology continues to ramp at a faster pace. In fact, the pandemic—and many companies’ suddenly urgent need for remote assistance and “see what I see” capabilities—has driven a spike … Continue reading M&A Activity Reflect AR’s Bright Enterprise Future

Are We Already Past ‘Peak’ Streaming’?

The average number TV viewing hours per household has, not unsurprisingly, risen during the coronavirus era. It has also shone a light on the good, the bad, and the ugly of the streaming TV revolution, which has been steadily upending traditional pay TV viewing patterns and business models. But I’d argue that we’re starting to … Continue reading Are We Already Past ‘Peak’ Streaming’?

COVID-19 Hastens Some Industries Shift to Cloud

There is nothing like a crisis to make people and organizations shift their mindsets on cloud-based technologies from “that’s interesting, but we’d never do it” to “how fast can we turn it on?” Bob O’Donnell’s recent column talked about this shift as it relates to cloud-based apps and devices, and today I’d like to talk … Continue reading COVID-19 Hastens Some Industries Shift to Cloud

PCs and Laptops are Now Essential for the Work At Home Crowd but are in Short Supply

Given the mandate for people to work from home, it seems logical to assume that most, if not all, who are doing this are using a desktop, laptop, or possibly a tablet to do their work. For most of the history of the PC market, PC vendors have always had more than enough stock in … Continue reading PCs and Laptops are Now Essential for the Work At Home Crowd but are in Short Supply

Niantic Buys 6D.AI as Battle to Own the AR Cloud Begins

This week a small startup that few people outside the augmented reality (AR) industry have heard about called 6D.AI was acquired by Niantic, one of the few AR-focused companies most people do know (thanks to its hit game Pokémon Go). So why is Niantic’s acquisition of 6D.AI important? Because it could represent the opening shot … Continue reading Niantic Buys 6D.AI as Battle to Own the AR Cloud Begins

Can we Predict The Next Decade in tech today?

I have been covering the PC industry since 1981, which means I have watched the tech world develop over a four-decade period. The advances in tech come fast and furiously, but each decade has its own focus. For example, the decade from 1980 to 1989 saw the birth and growth of the personal computer industry, … Continue reading Can we Predict The Next Decade in tech today?

Apple’s 5th PC revolution

For most of my early life in tech, Apple was a computer company. But not long after Apple introduced the iPod and began to diversify beyond personal computers, Steve Jobs dropped the term Computer from the company’s name and just called the company Apple Inc. Apple’s influence on the market has been substantial, and its … Continue reading Apple’s 5th PC revolution

A New Understanding of Computing

In last week’s column, I wrote about the potential of Apple introducing a set of AR glasses in 2020. I pointed out that financial analyst Ming-Chi Ko has repeatedly written to his clients stating that Apple will bring their first-generation AR glasses to market in the new year. I wrote that while I am still … Continue reading A New Understanding of Computing

Samsung Developer Conference: A More Deliberate Partner for Developers

This week at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, Samsung brought together its developer community for an event that has evolved quite a bit from its microscopic origins in a hotel meeting room around the corner from Union Square in San Francisco. In its new home in San Jose, SDC felt more focused than ever … Continue reading Samsung Developer Conference: A More Deliberate Partner for Developers

Facebook and Well Intentioned Failures

The business lessons being learned around Facebook on a regular basis are fascinating. The company has achieved once in a generation, or longer, user scale. We have never seen a company with the reach Facebook has, and we may never see it again. I know never say never, but the possibility we never see this … Continue reading Facebook and Well Intentioned Failures

Apple Event: Upgrades, Upgrades, Upgrades

On Sept 10th, at the Steve Jobs Theater, Apple gathered press, analysts, and guests to take a first look at the new iPhone models. During the keynote, Apple introduced the new iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max together with the new iPad 7th Generation and Apple Watch Series 5. … Continue reading Apple Event: Upgrades, Upgrades, Upgrades

Lenovo Continues Its Intelligent Transformation

When most consumers or IT buyers think about Lenovo, they likely think of a company best known for its iconic ThinkPad line of PCs. Lenovo is still very much a personal computing device company—it owned the top worldwide market share in the category in 2Q19—but over the past few years, it has moved aggressively to … Continue reading Lenovo Continues Its Intelligent Transformation

Apple’s Plans and Needs for Intel’s Smartphone Modem Business

It’s official. Apple is buying Intel’s smartphone modem business. Note, Intel still has their modem business for products like PCs and tablets and the IP they were selling was specific to smartphone modems. Apple has been working with Intel for years now integrating their modems, so they had a very good sense of the underlying … Continue reading Apple’s Plans and Needs for Intel’s Smartphone Modem Business

Services are Key to Apple’s Emerging Market Strategy

From a hardware standpoint, Apple has appeared to have saturated their developed markets. While there can still be some minimal growth (low-single digits) for the foreseeable future, there is not a great deal of hardware growth ahead for Apple. When I discuss this with investors, and even contacts of mine in the supply chain related … Continue reading Services are Key to Apple’s Emerging Market Strategy

Podcast: HPE Discover, Facebook Libra and Content Monitoring, Google Tablet

This week’s Tech.pinions podcast features Carolina Milanesi and Bob O’Donnell analyzing the announcements from HPE Discover show, discussing the potential impact of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency and a recent article on content monitoring concerns at a Facebook contractor, and debating Google’s decision not to release additional Google Pixel-branded tablets. If you happen to use a podcast … Continue reading Podcast: HPE Discover, Facebook Libra and Content Monitoring, Google Tablet

AMD’s Gamble Now Paying Off

For a company that just a few years ago some people had essentially written off as dead, AMD has certainly come a long way. Not only are they one of the top ten best performing stocks of 2019 so far (after enjoying similarly high rankings for all of 2018), the company recently announced major new … Continue reading AMD’s Gamble Now Paying Off

Reading the WWDC Tea Leaves

With Apple’s main developer event coming Monday, I wanted to share some thoughts on why I think this year will be significant for Apple and developers. There is a point about Apple’s hardware and software platforms that I think gets overlooked. There is no single company with as significant market share in many personal computing … Continue reading Reading the WWDC Tea Leaves