Rob Enderle

Robert Allan Enderle (born July 27, 1954 in Corona, California) is a technology analyst who is used widely by a variety of media resources as a broad expert on technology.

Biography

Rob Enderle is an analyst who covers a wide array of technology companies and related industry topics. With an extensive background in technology, Enderle is frequently contacted by the media for his opinion on breaking news and other happenings in the technology realm.

Enderle received an associate’s degree in merchandising from Orange Coast College, a bachelor’s degree in manpower management and a master’s degree in business administration from California State University Long Beach. He also received a Certified Management Accountant certificate from Pace University in New York. While in college, he became fascinated with three areas: Marketing, Computer Science and Human Resources. He has been able to apply what he learned during his years in school to his professional life throughout his career.

Enderle began his technology career at EMS Development Company, and while there he sat on the Board of Directors for the Southern California Marketing Director’s Association. After EMS folded, he moved to northern California and worked for ROLM Systems, later acquired by IBM, where he co-designed the first large scale CRM application. Also during this time, after nearly 12 months of in-depth research, he co-authored the IBM internal report on why the acquisition of ROLM was unsuccessful. The report earned him placement in the IBM Executive Resource Program.

In 1991, Enderle transferred to the IBM Storage Division, where he co-led a team attempting to spin out IBM software as a separate division. While there, he authored a massive study concluding that IBM would lose software leadership to Microsoft unless it could separate from the company. The spin out was blocked, and Microsoft later passed IBM for software market leadership.

In 1994, Enderle resigned from IBM and took a job with Dataquest. There he created the first five-year operating system forecast and foretold the rise of Windows and the fall of the MacOS, UNIX, NetWare, and OS/2.

In 1995, Enderle left Dataquest to help launch Giga Information Group, along with Gideon Gartner, the founder of the Gartner Group. There, Enderle founded the Emerging Technology Scene Conference and eventually became the senior research fellow. During this time he headed the Security, eCommerce, and Personal Technology research practices. Also during this time, he was identified as the most influential analyst in the technology market by AdWeek’s Technology Marketing magazine.

Six months after Forrester acquired Giga in 2002, Enderle left to found his own firm, the Enderle Group, where he remains today. His business model surrounds his belief, learned at IBM, that alternative views are valuable, and that too often people simply take the easy path and tell people what they want to hear.

Currently Enderle writes over 500 columns a year for TechNewsWorld http://www.technewsworld.com/ , TG Daily http://www.tgdaily.com/ , Digital Trends http://www.digitaltrends.com/ , Dark Reading http://www.darkreading.com/ and IT Business Edge http://www.itbusinessedge.com. He appears regularly on CNN, CNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox and is working with Tech Closeup http://www.techcloseup.com/ for syndication. He sits on advisory boards for the leading technology vendors and the Trusted Computing Group and shares a technology blog at www.technologypundits.com.