Ezra Gottheil

Editor’s note: Ezra Gottheil is Principal Analyst for Technology Business Research. HAMPTON, N.H. - Jeff Bezos put on a show with the interesting, apparently high-quality Fire phone, but TBR believes the Fire phone won’t greatly impact Amazon or the smartphone market. Innovative 3D-like display and tilt controls may work well and differentiate the phone from offerings from Apple or Android OEMs, or they may prove to be an annoyance and battery eaters. Even if successful, TBR believes they don’t radically improve the phone’s interface and won’t draw many buyers away from other vendors, especially in the now-mature U.S. smartphone market,...

Editor’s note: Ezra Gottheil is Principal Analyst at Technology Business Research. HAMPTON, N.H. – Lenovo’s path through the “PC Plus” era is taking a stunning turn with its acquisition of Google’s Motorola handset business Lenovo’s Wednesday-announced acquisition of Motorola Mobility’s handset and tablet business from Google, following its acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business a week earlier, puts the company exactly where it wants to be: at the forefront of the computing and smart devices businesses. Starting with its strong base in the world’s fastest growing market, China, Lenovo has thrived by acquiring, integrating and reengineering leading global hardware businesses. Already...

Editor’s note: Ezra Gottheil is senior analyst with Technology Business Research. HAMPTON, N.H. – The smallest surprise: HP (NYSE: HPQ) will keep its PC division HP announced Thursday that it no longer plans to spin off its PC division, the Personal Systems Group (PSG). Technology Business Research believes that, given customers’ clear desires to work with a single HP, the decision was the most likely outcome. Word that HP might spin off PSG, the world’s largest PC provider, drew widespread criticism and risked alienating customers. Despite being a commodity business, with a lower profit margin than most of its...