Moor Insights & Strategy Two-Week Update Ending January 29, 2021

By Patrick Moorhead - February 2, 2021

I hope you all had a great couple of weeks!

This week, Paul will be attending the 24th Annual Conference on Quantum Information Processing. Mark and Pat will be attending H.P. Power of Print.

Last week, Mark attended Intel Gaming Analyst Event. Melody attended Mastercard Virtual Fintech Forum.

Our MI&S team published 33 deliverables over the last two weeks:

10 Forbes columns
17 MI&S blogs
6 podcasts

The press quoted us with 32 citations. Journalists wanted to hear about AI, Citrix, IBM earnings, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung, T-Mobile and VR.

Quick Insights:

AR/VR (Anshel Sag)

Carrier/Wireless (Will Townsend)

AT&T and Verizon announced earnings this week. AT&T reported net postpaid sub adds at 800K a decade best performance and revenue growth despite Covid-19 pressure. On the other hand, Verizon lost a significant number of subs, and I suspect that's a result of share shift to T-Mobile. AT&T emerges as the victor, and it will be interesting to see what T-Mobile shares on February 4.
OnGoWireless/ CBRS extended its footprint globally this week. I'm not surprised - it's been a model for democratizing access to licensed spectrum in the U.S. and should help accelerate private cellular networking globally and connect industrial equipment that has long been disconnected.

Cloud Services (Rhett Dillingham)

Stubhub's story of full cloud migration challenges indicate how far along public cloud has come in supporting full app footprint cloud transformation in enterprise. The key enabler for Stubhub was the use of bare metal to support a lift and shift of its Oracle databases. Bare metal was a significant technical achievement in the public cloud when first released by a few CSPs in 2016. Still, the excitement died down pretty quickly as there was no immediate increase in mass app migrations in enterprise. The reality was, this was a key unlocker for some of the most difficult apps to migrate of all, particularly Oracle databases, but these apps were last on the migration planning list to be moved. What was unlocked was effectively the ability and, therefore, appetite for planning further — in some cases full — migration in ways previously not feasible. After a few years now, the firms seeking full migration in medium to large enterprise, such as Stubhub migrating to GCP, have now progressed to this point and can fully migrate out of its past private infra / D.C. use. Once migrated, it will continue to consider when to migrate its Oracle databases to a cloud-native service competitor, such as Spanner in the GCP case. This is ultimately a very threatening dynamic for Oracle and why its cloud play is so strategically critical to its business in retaining its footprint in enterprise.

Datacenter:

Storage- (Steve McDowell)
- We've been talking about how hot the data protection market is running for most of the past year, and Commvault shows that its not slowing down. The company had its best every quarter, delivering $188M, up 17% year/year.
- You don't often see a company like Dell Technologies simply kill off a product, but the company quietly killed off its PowerProtect X400 data protection appliance. What makes this one interesting is that the X400 was on the market for less than a year. There's something admirable about a product management team willing to cut-and-run. But don't cry for Dell's data protection business — its PowerProtect DP and D.D. solutions continue to be strong.
- Microsoft and Intel are teaming up to push Microsoft's Azure Stack HCI to the system integrator community, with Intel introducing a new Data Center Blocks (Intel DCB). Intel DCB provides a nice ready-to-integration solution for the S.I.s. We don't hear a lot about Microsoft's HCI solution, with VMware and Nutanix getting most of the attention, but it's a strong solution for the Windows ecosystem.
- Intel has killed off Optane, or at least the consumer variants of the 3D XPOINT non-volatile memory technology that it developed with Micron. This isn't surprising, as the value proposition for Optane in the consumer market has always been questionable. Simultaneously, the current consumer-friendly pricing for TLC NAND technologies makes it an even more difficult sell. Intel continues to do what it needs to in the server space, both with Optane SSDs and its persistent memory variants, where we're seeing solid use cases taking hold.
- Faster than Optane? Phison demonstrated a TLC NAND based PCIe gen 4 SSD at CES last week with performance characteristics that, if proven real, provide an SSD with Optane-beating throughput and latency. There are a lot of "ifs" around this, but the big takeaway is that PCIe gen 4 + NVMe is very, very fast.
- Veritas buys HubStor, continuing to demonstrate the data protection market is red-hot. HubStor is a small Canadian backup and recovery SAAS. Its 21 employees will all move over to Veritas, becoming part of the Veritas Backup Exec, EndPoint Protection, and SaaS Protection team.
Networking- (Will Townsend)
- Juniper Networks announced 4Q and 2020 cumulative earnings this week. It has made inroads with its Mist acquisition. It heavily leaned into AIOps as a key differentiator in the enterprise space and grew it to a company record with high single digit growth. Its traditional stronghold in service providers remained flat, which is not surprising as it marshals significant enterprise resources.
- Cisco went back to acquisition target Acacia and upped its offer to $4.5B. This nearly doubles its original offer of $2.5B extended in mid-2019. Acacia took advantage of the regulatory hurdles with China to put more money in its pockets. With that said, the acquisition should strengthen Cisco's position in optical networking long term.
Server- (Matt Kimball)
- N/A

FinTech (Melody Brue)

GameStop had a massive market soar after retail investors rallied against institutional investors in a squeeze never seen before, leading short sellers to lose $23B on the stock in the past month. The power struggle between Wall Street and mostly amateur retail investors born on a Reddit forum shows the massive collective power of the retail investor using fintech platforms for trading. After the stock surged more than 1000% this week, trading platforms Robinhood, T.D. Ameritrade and Schwab restricted trades. Robinhood, which prides itself on democratizing retail investing, limited trades to position closing. The backlash will be hefty – it will lose users, face lawsuits and an SEC investigation, especially since some hedge funds reeling from its losses are significant investors in the company and process the app's orders. This is evolving by the minute, and the market is likely to continue to swing for a while.
At Mastercard's Virtual Fintech Summit, there was a lot of discussion around financial health tools as we emerge from a pandemic. Many people looked to fintech companies to help manage its money and spending and, for some, the increase in cash flow from stimulus payments during the pandemic's economic uncertainty. With all this new adoption came data. Fintechs are now reviewing how the data accumulated in the last year can be used in an open banking environment, allowing users to permission its data to enable better experiences and access to tailored banking and credit options. Mastercard said it would be doubling down on data rails.
With a new U.S. President, new policies will follow. Most important to FinTech are data, open banking, and antitrust issues. The DOJ's antitrust lawsuit that stopped the Visa acquisition of Plaid last week indicates scrutiny ahead. In light of this, some question why Mastercard's acquisition of permissioned data aggregator, Finicty, was greenlighted. The DOJ's approval of this deal isn't surprising, given Mastercard's much smaller market share in online debit services. Visa has been icing Mastercard out of this market for years and acquiring Plaid would have cemented Visa's monopoly.
The DOJ's nixing of the deal signals its aversion towards a giant in open banking, but this leaves the market further fragmented. This highlights the need for government regulation to standardize financial data sharing in the U.S., as has been done in the E.U. for several years.
A.I. is starting to play a more significant role in FinTech. Companies use it to make more informed decisions around lending, for example, using more information than a credit score - like job history, etc. to reduce risk. The Washington Post reported that Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) pledged to advance new regulations around artificial intelligence to ensure that powerful, behind-the-scenes algorithms don't exhibit bias based on race or gender.

Home Automation/ Smart Home (Mark Vena)

Microsoft is continuing to attract people to its Xbox Game Pass service. The "Netflix for video games" service now has 18 million subscribers, up from the 15 million previously reported in September. Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that offers access to a growing selection of more than 100 Xbox games for $9.99 per month.
Amazon's Ring has debuted its latest video doorbell, the (blandly named) Ring Video Doorbell Wired, which, at $59.99, is the cheapest and smallest doorbell that the company has ever offered. As the name implies, there is one major limitation of the new Ring Video Doorbell Wired. Unlike its pricier siblings, it can only be used as a hardwired doorbell, instead of the battery-powered option offered by products like the Ring Doorbell 3 or the $99.99 Ring Video Doorbell company refreshed last year.
Sling T.V., Dish's live T.V. streaming service, announced that it's raising the prices on its packages and add-ons for new customers starting today. Both the Orange and Blue channel packages from Sling will go up by $5 to $35 per month for new subscribers or $50 per month when bundled together. Because of Sling's existing one-year price guarantee, current subscribers won't have to deal with the latest prices until August 2021.
Linking your WhatsApp account to your computer's web browser or desktop app is getting a little more secure. Soon, if you've got biometric authentication enabled on your phone, you'll have to unlock the app before you can link your account. The company says the new system is intended to ensure that should someone else gain access to your phone. It won't be able to link your account to its web browser (which, in turn, would allow them to see any messages you send or receive).
Users caught between Apple and Microsoft may now have an easier time managing passwords: it looks like iCloud Keychain is coming to Windows 10 as a Chrome extension (via MacRumors). It's already in the iCloud for Windows 10 app, but there's just one small problem: the Chrome Extension isn't available yet. The latest version of iCloud for Windows 10 includes "Support for iCloud Passwords Chrome Extension" in the list of new features, and when you open the app, there's a new Passwords-syncing option. Checking the box will cause a login prompt to come up, along with a request for two-factor authentication. According to Apple's support page, you'll need to have two-factor turned on for your account to have access to the feature, which is probably a good choice since, in theory, you're going to be syncing all of your passwords.
CBS Sports Digital has confirmed to The Verge that the 2021 Super Bowl won't be available to stream in 4K or HDR this year. The company is citing production limitations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason. Last year marked the first time that the Super Bowl was available in 4K and HDR, but that stream was broadcast by Fox Sports, which had a lot more experience broadcasting 4K NFL games, having previously offered numerous games in 4K during both the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
This might make me switch to a Windows-based PC as my "go-to" workstation: Beeper is a new universal chat app that attempts to unify 15 different chat platforms into a single interface. The app is the work of a team that includes the founder of former smartwatch manufacturer Pebble, who announced its launch on Twitter. Beeper's site notes that the project was previously known as NovaChat, and requires a $10 per month subscription. Although Beeper integrates with the world's most popular messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Slack, Twitter, Discord, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, it's the support for Apple's iMessage that's perhaps most interesting. iMessage is only officially available on Apple devices, and users often cite it as something that prevents them from switching to Android. Migicovsky says Beeper should allow iMessage to work on Android, Windows, and Linux but admits that it's "using some trickery" in doing so.
Streaming services are slowly turning into cable T.V. — complete with bundles, an ever-growing list of channels, and a reinvented T.V. guide. And a series of lawsuits could portend the return of something even worse: the hidden cable fee. Three municipalities in Georgia are suing Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming video providers for as much as 5 percent of its gross revenue in the district. A nationwide group of towns and counties want these services regulated like cable T.V. There's a small war over cord-cutting. Thus, challenging regulators decide which matters more: the increasing role streaming services play in American media diets or its significant practical differences from traditional T.V.
Are the new AirPods Max overengineered? iFixit's long in the making AirPods Max teardown is finally complete, giving an exhaustive look at the internals of Apple's debut over-ear headphones and an idea of how easy it is to repair. iFixit even went as far as to teardown Sony's WH-1000XM4 and Bose's NC 700 headphones for comparison. Until now, iFixit has refused to grant Apple a single repairability point for any of its AirPods, but the AirPods Max buck the trend with a surprisingly high score of six out of ten. Why so high? Well, for starters, its ear cushions attach via magnets, making them easy to swap and replace when it inevitably gets worn out. There are also plenty of internal components held together with screws rather than messy glue, which should make it easy for would-be repairers to swap them out if it breaks.

IIoT and IoT (Bill Curtis)

Last week, the Raspberry Pi folks launched its Pico platform with an in-house developed, Cortex M0 based RP2040 chip. The retail single-unit cost for the board is $4. Yes, four U.S. dollars. This product is significant for two reasons. First, the price point is disruptive. In addition to using it as a development board, IoT device makers can also solder it down onto simple sensor boards with I/O and interface circuitry, significantly reducing product complexity and risk. Second, the Pico does not have its network interface. Some analysts see this as a deficiency, but it's not. Think of the Pico as a smart peripheral device, offloading real-time functions from a larger networked platform such as a Raspberry Pi 4 or an M4-based microcontroller. The host computer only wakes up when networking is required while the peripheral controller runs real-time at ~100 MW, delivering deterministic latency at rock bottom cost. Dedicated real-time processing is the way to go, and now there's a cheap mainstream platform to build on. Software support includes C, MicroPython, and soon TensorFlow Lite. The Pico will have a significant influence on embedded system design.

Machine Learning/ Artificial Intelligence (Karl Freund)

The cambrian explosion is just getting started at the edge. A.I. Startups FlexLogix, SimpleMachines, and DeepVision have all caught my attention of late. Each has a unique architecture for inference at the edge, and each is extremely power efficient. Unlike Data Center A.I., the edge can support multiple vendors, each in a slightly different niche (power, performance, latency, and price.
Tenstorrent has named the famous chip designer, Jim Keller, to be its president and CTO. Tenstorrent has a new training platform under development, so I expect Jim to focus on execution and the next-generation design.
I expect Gelsinger to shake up Intel's A.I. portfolio and management team. Too many mistakes, no clarity.
SambaNova has published a paper on its site that claims its chip and rack significantly outperform NVIDIA training and inference for Recommender systems using the DLRM benchmark. Unfortunately, I cannot determine what is being compared. Is it an 8-node vs. 8-node comparison or 8 node vs. 32 node?

Personal Computing/ Collaboration (Anshel Sag)

Quantum Computing (Paul Smith-Goodson)

Peter Chapman, CEO of IonQ, says that we'll see the first demonstration of networked quantum computers combined to build a single but much larger quantum machine within a year. He says it won't be a lab demo, but it will be a real-world working example. When I posted Chapman's prediction on Twitter, it was met with a lot of nay-sayers. But, I think I know Chapman pretty well. Although I don't have any NDA knowledge about this, I'll bet on Chapman and that he can do it. I have a hunch it's already working somewhere in several corners of IonQ's new data center.
BMW recently partnered with Entropica to develop recursive QAOA software that could be used with Honeywell's Model H1 10-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer. This is a first quantum step for BMW. It is interested in piloting quantum to help optimize its manufacturing supply chain. The project was a proof of concept project. In a benchmarking test, RQAOA performed well compared to a Karmarkar-Karp classical algorithm.
IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna highlighted the value of quantum on the 4Q earnings call. He said quantum could represent billions of dollars in value to customers by the end of the decade. IBM released it quantum roadmap last year, with key aspects being a 1000+ qubit by 2023 and a million qubit machine within 10-15 years. The 1000-qubit machine has the potential to achieve quantum advantage in some domains such as finance and chemistry, and the million+ qubit fault-tolerant quantum computer has the potential to fulfill the promise of quantum in many areas.
IonQ has announced a three-year alliance with South Korea's Q Center, an independent organization at Sungkyunkwan University, which was established 600 years ago. The agreement provides access to IonQ's trapped ion computer for S. Korean researchers, scientists, and students to learn, develop, and deploy quantum applications. This a further democratization of quantum computing and should produce some unique and interesting research.
The Air Force Research Laboratory has begun working with superconducting qubits. AFRL has three objectives
- Use superconducting modules to encode and decode information for a multi-node network
- Interconnect photonic qubits and superconducting qubits for distributed quantum computing over fiber
- Integrate superconducting systems with trapped-ion quantum processors to utilize the long coherence of trapped-ions with faster superconducting qubit gate speed. I believe this will integrate with the quantum internet work being done by NIST.
More quantum progress by China reports it has transmitted a photon entanglement from one moving platform to another. Previously it demonstrated transporting entangled photons over 1000 kilometers between a satellite and ground stations. Researchers at Nanjing University in China and its colleagues have done it over shorter distances with moving platforms. This would help a quantum internet and provide access by cars to an internet node or directly with another moving car.

Security (Chris Wilder)

Podcasts:

The G2 on 5G by Moor Insights & Strategy, with Anshel Sag and Will Townsend

Episode 37 - January 29, 2021
- AT&T, Verizon earnings insights, T-Mobile to announce next week on February 4
- IDC Reports Global smartphone market share vastly affected by 5G, down 5.9% full year, up 4.3% Q4 YoY
- Ericsson reports strong earnings buoyed by 5G and Huawei ban - can it continue its momentum?
- 5G Modems more than doubled in 2020, according to GSA
- Dell Tech, VMWare, and S.K. Telecom team to deliver a simplified platform to facilitate private 5G networking and edge computing
- 5G Fastest Network Shenanigans - Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all claim the fastest networks
Episode 36 - January 22, 2021
- OnGo Wireless/ CBRS expand spectrum access footprint globally - what does it mean for 5G private cellular networking?
- Ookla's SpeedTest Finds AT&T is the fastest 5G network in Q4 2020
- Nokia and China Mobile trial AI RAN - can it deliver efficiencies for future 5G service delivery?
- Snapdragon 870 and MediaTek Dimensity 1100 and 1200 announcements for 5G Phones
- Verizon & Unity 5G MEC Partnership - what it could mean for future consumer and enterprise 5G services
- Dept of Commerce - National Telecommunications and Information Administration - National Strategy to Secure 5G Plan - 7 Part Plan

DataCentric Podcast by Moor Insights & Strategy, with Matt Kimball and Steve McDowell

AMD & Intel Earnings: What's it mean for the server market?
- Both Intel and AMD released earnings last week, with Intel's Data Center Group sliding slightly, while AMD's server fortunes rise.
- What's it mean for the enterprise server market overall? And how is 2021 starting to shape up?
Data Center Predictions for 2021
- Arm-based processors in the cloud: where's it going? Does it impact Arm server adoption? Will there be Arm-based general-purpose servers?
- Forget about Arm; what about AMD? Will it hit 15% server share in 2021?
- Intel has had a monopoly in the nascent 3D XPOINT (Intel Optane) business, despite co-inventing Micron's technology. Does that change in 2021?
- Nutanix gained new private equity backing in 2020, changing CEOs, and positioning itself for 2021. One of our hosts thinks its an HPE acquisition.
- How impactful will the various OEM's as-a-service offerings be in 2021? Let the boys tell you.
- A contrary prediction about the future of Nvidia's quest to absorb Arm
- In-person conferences will come roaring back. Or not.

SmartTechCheck Podcast by Moor Insights & Strategy, with Mark Vena

SmartTechCheck Podcast (1-26-21)
- An interesting podcast with the executive leaders at Superior Sensor about its role in bringing great "smart" solutions across multiple product segments utilizing its breakthrough sensor technology

The Six-Five Podcast by Moor Insights & Strategy and Futurum Research, with Patrick Moorhead and Daniel Newman

Yes, The P.C. is Critical
- HP Inc, Dell, Lenovo, Intel, NVIDIA and AMD

Moor Insights & Strategy Podcast

Press Citations:

AI / https://www.enterpriseai.news/2021/01/27/ai-virtualization-and-orchestration-startup-captures-30m-series-b-funding/
(Karl Freund)
AWS / SDXCentral https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/aws-throws-a-fork-into-the-open-source-debate/2021/01/
Citrix, Wrike / https://siliconangle.com/2021/01/17/report-cirtix-poised-buy-collaboration-software-firm-wrike-2-billion/
IBM, Earnings / SiliconAngle https://siliconangle.com/2021/01/21/ibm-misses-revenue-target-says-steady-growth-will-resume-year/
Intel / ChannelAsia https://www.channelasia.tech/article/685788/intel-next-ceo-pat-gelsinger-promises-return-greatness/
Intel, Earnings / Techxplore https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-embattled-intel.html
Intel, earnings / Barrons https://www.barrons.com/articles/intel-stock-rises-on-fourth-quarter-earnings-beat-as-pc-sales-continue-to-impress-51611269052
Intel / Eweek https://www.eweek.com/it-management/how-ceo-swan-set-up-gelsinger-for-future-success-at-intel
Intel, Cybersecurity / https://thenationpress.net/en/news-89207.html
Intel / InsideHPC https://insidehpc.com/2021/01/reading-the-intel-tea-leaves-pat-gelsingers-hpc-paradox/
Intel, Earnings / Newagebd https://www.newagebd.net/article/127980/embattled-intel-says-earnings-better-than-expected
Intel / PCWorld https://www.pcworld.com/article/3604477/intels-next-ceo-pat-gelsinger-hints-at-future-plans-during-earnings-call.html
Intel, Cybersecurity / https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/intel-avoids-outsourcing-embrace-investi-idUSKBN29Q2VD
Intel, earnings / https://www.investors.com/news/technology/intel-stock-bends-manufacturing-missteps-new-ceo-pat-gelsinger-takes-over/
Intel, Earnings / TechXplore https://techxplore.com/news/2021-01-embattled-intel.html
Intel / Streetinside
https://www.streetinsider.com/General+News/Intel+avoids+outsourcing+embrace%2C+investigates+hack+of+results/17848490.html
Intel / InsideHPC https://insidehpc.com/2021/01/reading-the-intel-tea-leaves-pat-gelsingers-hpc-paradox/
Intel / Industryleadersmagazine https://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/pat-gelsinger-takes-over-intel-expected-to-focus-on-manufacturing-and-execution/
Intel / Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-intel-results/incoming-intel-ceo-says-majority-of-2023-products-will-be-made-internally-idUSKBN29Q2VD?il=0
Intel / PCWorld https://www.pcworld.com/article/3604477/intels-next-ceo-pat-gelsinger-hints-at-future-plans-during-earnings-call.html
Intel/ Yahoo Finance https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intel-forecasts-first-quarter-revenue-211739050.html
NVIDIA, AI / https://www.enterpriseai.news/2021/01/26/nvidia-unveils-certified-server-program-offering-pre-built-servers-for-ai-applications/ (Karl Freund)
NVIDIA, AI / https://www.hpcwire.com/2021/01/26/nvidia-rolls-out-certified-server-program-targeting-ai-applications/ (Karl Freund)
Samsung, Chips / Austin American Statesman https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2021/01/22/samsung-could-build-10-b-advanced-chipmaking-plant-austin/6673682002/
Samsung, Chips / Austin American Statesman https://www.statesman.com/story/business/2021/01/26/samsung-chip-factory-austin-road-bid/4263166001/
T-Mobile, 5G / https://www.telecomlead.com/5g/t-mobile-is-americas-5g-speed-leader-opensignal-98566
T-Mobile, Earnings / https://www.engadget.com/intel-q4-earnings-pc-revenues-notebooks-232707825.html
T-Mobile, Earnings / https://hothardware.com/news/intel-q4-2020-earnings-record-pc-sales-boom (Anshel Sag)
T-Mobile, 5G / https://www.tullahomanews.com/news/business/t-mobile-5g-is-fastest-based-on-new-independent-test/article_e2c76974-37eb-5572-9c5b-e119e73e5a1d.html (Anshel Sag)
VR / Protocol https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/next-up/sundance-film-festival-vr?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3

New Gear or Software We are Using and Testing that is Public Knowledge

Apple MacBook Pro 13" M1, MacBook Air M1, MacBook Mini M1, iPhone 12 mini
Dell XPS 13 EVO laptop
HP Spectre EVO 13 laptop
Huawei P40 Pro
IBM Qiskit software
Intel ATX12VO motherboard & PSU
Razer EVO laptop
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, S21 and S21 Ultra
Sony blogger camera
TCL 10 5G U.W.
Xbox Series X

Events MI&S Plans on Attending In-Person or Virtually (New)

February 2020
- 24th Annual Conference on Quantum Information Processing, January 29 - February 5 (Paul Smith-Goodson)
- H.P. Power of Print, Feb 3-4 (Mark Vena, Patrick Moorhead)

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The Team

Analysts and Analysts In-Residence

Patrick Moorhead, Founder, President, Principal Analyst; Broad technology coverage and deep insights into Cloud & SaaS, IoT, Personal Computing, Semiconductors, Automotive
Bill Curtis, Analyst In-Residence, IIoT, and Deep IoT Technology
Rhett Dillingham, Senior Analyst, Cloud Services
Karl Freund, Senior Analyst, HPC, and Deep Learning
Matt Kimball, Senior Analyst, Datacenter Servers, CI, and HCI
Melody Brue, Senior Analyst, Financial Tech
Steve McDowell, Senior Analyst, Datacenter Storage, and Storage Technologies
Anshel Sag, Senior Analyst; V.R., P.C. Gaming, Mobile Platforms
Paul Smith-Goodson, Senior Analyst; Quantum Computing
Will Townsend, Senior Analyst; Carrier Equipment and Services, DC Networking
Chris Wilder, Senior Analyst, Security
Mark Vena, Senior Analyst, Smart Home, and Home Security

Operations

Dan Pickens, Business Director
Paula Moorhead, Marketing Director, Website, and Social Media
Walker Pickens, Media Relations, and Writer
Zane Pickett, Office Manager, A.P., AR, travel, writer
Lee LeClercq Williams, Business Associate

Patrick Moorhead

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Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.