Apple is Giving Samsung Semiconductor A Splitting Headache

Apple is Giving Samsung Semiconductor A Splitting Headache
by Ed McKernan on 10-18-2011 at 5:00 pm

Vertical integration, as I have noted in previous blogs, is the way to domination and maximum profitability. That is unless someone else has beaten you to the punch with an even bettermodel. Apple is now executing a product and manufacturing supplier strategy that will force Samsung to lose lots of money and then ultimately split… Read More


From IBM Mainframes to Wintel PCs to Apple iPhones: 70% is the Magic Number

From IBM Mainframes to Wintel PCs to Apple iPhones: 70% is the Magic Number
by Ed McKernan on 10-12-2011 at 10:51 am

Time to ring the Bell. With the iPhone 4S, Apple has just surpassed the 70% gross margin metric that usually equates to a compute platform becoming an industry standard. IBM’s mainframe achieved it in the 1960s with the 360 series and still is able to crank it out with their Z-series. The combined Intel and Microsoft tandem (Wintel)… Read More


Amazon’s Kindle Fire Spells Trouble for nVidia, Qualcomm and Intel

Amazon’s Kindle Fire Spells Trouble for nVidia, Qualcomm and Intel
by Ed McKernan on 10-05-2011 at 11:50 am

With the introduction of the Kindle Fire, it is now guaranteed that Amazon has the formula down for building the new, high volume mobile platform based on sub $9 processors. In measured fashion, Amazon has moved down Moore’s Law curve from the initial 90nm Freescale processor to what is reported to be TI’s OMAP 4 in order to add the … Read More


Apple Plays Saudi Arabia’s Role in the Semiconductor Market

Apple Plays Saudi Arabia’s Role in the Semiconductor Market
by Ed McKernan on 09-27-2011 at 12:08 am

The retirement of Steve Jobs left most commentators wondering if Tim Cook could lead Apple marching ever onward and upward. In truth, Tim Cook’s contribution on the operations side has been just as instrumental in the destruction of Apple’s PC and consumer electronics competitors as Jobs’ product vision. Under Tim Cook’s guidance,… Read More


Memo To New AMD CEO: Time For A Breakout Strategy!

Memo To New AMD CEO: Time For A Breakout Strategy!
by Ed McKernan on 09-12-2011 at 2:52 pm

“Where’s the Taurus?” In the history of company turnarounds, it was one of the most penetrating and catalyzing opening questions ever offered by a new CEO to a demoralized executive team. The CEO was Alan Mullaly, who spent years at Boeing and at one point in the 1980s studied the successful rollout of the original Ford Taurus. For… Read More


Broadcom’s Bet the Company Acquisition of Netlogic

Broadcom’s Bet the Company Acquisition of Netlogic
by Ed McKernan on 09-12-2011 at 1:19 pm

I surmised a month ago that Broadcom could be a likely acquirer of TI’s OMAP business in order to compete more effectively in Smart Phones and Tablets. I was not bold enough. Instead, Broadcom has offered $3.7B for Netlogic in order to be an even bigger player in the communications infrastructure market by picking up TCAMs and a family… Read More


HP Will Farm Out Server Business to Intel

HP Will Farm Out Server Business to Intel
by Ed McKernan on 09-04-2011 at 7:36 pm


In a Washington Post Column this past Sunday, Barry Ritholtz, A Wall St. Money Manager and who has a blog called the Big Picture, recounts the destruction that Apple has inflicted on a wide swath of technology companies (see And then there were none). He calls it “creative destruction writ large.” Ritholtz though is only accounting… Read More


Apple’s $399 Plan to Win Consumer Market in Summer 2012

Apple’s $399 Plan to Win Consumer Market in Summer 2012
by Ed McKernan on 08-30-2011 at 10:30 am

The complete destruction of the consumer PC market in the US and Europe is well within Apple’s grasp and will begin to unfold next summer. There is nothing that Intel, Microsoft or the retail channels can do to hold back the tsunami that was first set in motion with the iPad last year and comes to completion with the introduction of one… Read More


Will AMD and Samsung Battle Intel and Micron?

Will AMD and Samsung Battle Intel and Micron?
by Ed McKernan on 08-26-2011 at 2:00 pm

We received some good feedback from our article on Intel’s Back to the Future Buy of Micron and I thought I would present another story line that gives readers a better perspective of what may be possibly coming down the road. In this case, it is the story of AMD and Samsung partnering to counter Intel’s platform play with Micron. The… Read More


Itanium Neutron Bombs Hit HP Campuses, Oracle Looking for Survivors

Itanium Neutron Bombs Hit HP Campuses, Oracle Looking for Survivors
by Ed McKernan on 08-23-2011 at 11:37 pm

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It was a series of Itanium Neutron Bombs detonating during the reign of 4 management teams (Platt, Fiorina, Hurd and Apotheker) that left HP campuses in Cupertino and Palo Alto in the custody of crickets. The devastation to employees and stockholders is absolutely immense and the current strategy calls for a further retreat into… Read More