Articles by Jeff Kagan

ThinkPad is a solid brand. So why is Lenovo suddenly screwing up its brand relationship with customers? We all have our favorites. That's the power of successfully building a brand. However, in an effort to grow, Lenovo is making a costly mistake. Rather than creating a distinct new sub-brand category, it is spreading the existing ThinkPad brand too thin, confusing the customer. That's a recipe for disaster.

What the heck is wrong at Microsoft? It may be an important company, but it's an older company that has definitely lost its way. It can recover but doesn't see how. The solution seems so obvious from the outside. However, there is a sense that arrogance is getting in the way of clear thinking. It is keeping Microsoft from becoming great once again. So what's wrong, and what can it do to recover? ...

We have a problem. We don't have enough wireless spectrum to satisfy America's rapidly growing appetite. That means we'll increasingly have problems connecting with our smartphones and tablets. This spectrum shortage means we must decide the best way to use what we do have. So now is the time to draw a line in the sand and do what we must do -- prepare to share spectrum. ...

There is a simple answer to the BlackBerry problem: Rather than trying to become a new company and address a new market and compete with new competitors, it should focus on its bread and butter, the business and government communities that still use its products. If it does this, I believe its recovery will begin quickly. Alicia Keys may be a gre...

In recent months I have been asked many times whether the brand new BlackBerry 10 operating system and new handsets like the Z10 and Q10 are hits or misses. The answer is simple: It depends. It's a matter of what you want and expect. The new BlackBerry handsets do satisfy a segment of the user base, while they leave others disappointed -- but there's a solution for that. ...

Vu Digital is a new search tool for the Internet that helps you locate content. This very interesting startup, which launched just over a month ago, does not replace traditional search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. It goes beyond them. You will still use traditional search engines, but Vu finds, organizes and delivers content users are looking for seamlessly. It seems to fill a need -- and oh yeah, it's free.

Verizon is on the hot seat. It is at the center of the story about releasing customer information to the U.S. National Security Agency. As it turns out, there is more than one story here. There is the Verizon story and the Prism story. While Verizon does make information about every call available to the NSA, the actual conversation is still priv...

We have been watching the big guys battle it out for the last few years. Apple's iOS vs. Google's Android on the operating system side, and Apple's iPhone vs. Samsung's Galaxy on the handset side. However little attention has been paid to No. 3. Which company is No. 3? I'll be you don't even know. Yet No. 3 could transform the industry over the next few years...

It appears Lenovo is getting ready to bring smartphones to the U.S. market. After acquiring the IBM Thinkpad line of computers, this company has gone from virtually unknown in the United States to one of the heavy hitters. Now Lenovo is entering the smartphone business. Will it be successful? In China, Lenovo is a strong brand name. Since its acqu...

Do you ever wonder why some companies flourish and grow while others struggle? Why you love doing business with some but not others? It all has to do with how they interact with customers. Customer care is crucial for long-term success. My family has been going to the beach every summer for as long as I can remember. Hilton Head Island in South ...

If presenting to the technology industry analyst community is so important, why do most companies do such a poor job? I have participated in more analyst briefings over the last 25 years than I can remember. Companies all want the same positive result, but they all go about it very differently. Only a very few are well done and get good results. S...

May is National Stroke Awareness Month. I like to follow the technological advancements for stroke prevention and treatment -- and the companies making them -- because I have been a stroke survivor for nine years. We don't realize it on a daily basis, but things advance as quickly in the medical and health industries as in wireless and communications. If I had my stroke today rather than nine years ago, there would be much more help at my fingertips...

BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion, is under a lot of scrutiny as it pursues its comeback strategy. An interesting question recently came up having to do with that effort: Is BlackBerry so busy focusing on growth and the future that it has forgotten about taking care of customer needs in the present? I'll address this both as a technology industry analyst and a long time BlackBerry fan.

I want to thank CTIA for inviting me to be a judge in its annual wireless competition. The winners will be announced at this year's CTIA 2013 starting May 21 in Las Vegas. I was looking for what's new, earthshaking and transformative, and I was very impressed with many entries. I think you will be as well.

Thanks to countless conversations with reporters, I have developed a crystal clear idea of why Dish Network and SoftBank want to acquire Sprint Nextel. It has less to do with wireless carrier ambitions, and much more to do with the future -- being leaders in a new space that's still largely under the radar. When wireless took off, it is was all a...

The wireless industry is in the middle of a transformation. That means there are many new opportunities going forward, but there are many new challenges as well. Which ideas, companies and sectors will win is the question. I have been a wireless and technology industry analyst for more than 25 years. I have followed and worked with many companies...

Aereo streams television over the Internet for a fee -- so far only in the New York City region. Its expected rapid rollout has not happened over the past year. Why? One reason is that Aereo was being sued by various broadcasters. However, the decision handed down this week from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals looks good for Aereo. The ruling ...

When the BlackBerry Z10 was first in my hands, I was prepared to write a glowing review of the new device and operating system. I like BlackBerry. I thought I was going to be able to write how it was a real competitor to the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy. I was hoping to be able to say BlackBerry was back. Unfortunately, I can't -- not yet. The new Z10 is better in some ways and worse in others.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 Dims Apple's GlowTalk about attracting attention. As I write this, there are more than a thousand recent news stories and opinion pieces on the Google News site about the brand new Samsung Galaxy S4. That's an incredible win for a company that a few short years ago wasn't well known in the wireless business. Since Samsung is successfully transforming how the world thinks about it as a smartphone maker, what can we expect going forward?...

Microsoft was once rapidly growing like Google and Apple. Then it changed. It became a very large, but very slow growing company. These days it seems stuck, struggling to break into other businesses. By the way, the same thing is starting at Apple too. The growth wave Microsoft rode crested years ago, but it hasn't been able to catch the next wave...