Experience Summary

Over 25 years in the computer industry including computer technology research and forecasting, computer architecture analysis, strategic planning, technology and market opportunity analysis, market forecasting, system design and implementation. Experience from working inside large organizations, as an entrepreneur and as a consultant to leading computer companies. A major strength is technical knowledge combined with understanding of market trends and directions. A special skill is to take complex technical and market issues, extract the key elements and explain their significance and impact.
 

Present Expertise

Strategic knowledge and perspectives on the inner workings of the computer industry

Computer technology trends and forecasting

Internet technology trends and forecasting 

Computer industry market trends and forecasting

Internet industry market trends and forecasting

Computer and information systems architecture analysis

PC and microprocessor hardware and software architectures

Computer distribution channel analysis and trends

Computer industry strategic planning

Computers-in-use and Internet user statistics and trends

 

Education

1. 1972 Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN. Ph.D. thesis: Multiple microprocessors sharing common microprogramming memory. Received a three-year doctoral fellowship from 1970 to 1972 from Purdue University, which was awarded by IBM.
2. 1970 MS, Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN
3. 1969 BS, Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN
4. 1964 Electronic Technician, Royal Norwegian Air Force, Oslo, Norway.
5. 1962 Exam Artium, Stavanger, Norway. This Norwegian high school diploma is equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma plus one year.

 

Work Experience

1999-Present: eTForecasts
President & founder. eTForecasts publishes market research reports and does consulting in the U.S., Japan and Europe. These market research and forecast reports focus on the PC and Internet industries. The market research reports tracks and forecasts computers-in-use, Internet users and sales of PCs, printer and other markets. The reports cover the U.S. and international markets. Several additional market research reports are in development.

1986-1999: Computer Industry Almanac
President, Editor & co-founder. Computer Industry Almanac publishes two reference books on the computer marketplace. He co-authored eight editions of the Computer Industry Almanac and one edition of the Internet Industry Almanac. Both books have a wealth of information, ranging from an overview of the industry structure, technologies and products, technology trends and projections, computer and Internet in-use statistics, salary and wealth data to directories of companies and organizations, people, publications and much more. He also did technology, marketing and strategic planning consulting on most PC and Internet segments. 

1986-1992: Workstation Laboratories
Chairman. Workstation Labs developed performance tests for workstations and PCs. These and other tests were run on all major workstation and PC brands and models. The major workstation and PC vendors subscribed to the results.

1986-1991: StoreBoard
Chairman & co-founder. StoreBoard continued one of Future Computing's most important services--the monthly projection of PC hardware and software sales based on survey data from small and large computer resellers. His responsibilities were the projection methodologies, analyzing the results, spotting important trends and project future trends. He also did considerable consulting based on the StoreBoard data, ranging from distribution channel strategies to opportunity analysis that estimated potential sales volumes of new products. StoreBoard was sold to Computer Intelligence, a Ziff-Davis subsidiary, in 1988. 

1986-1987: Intelisys
President & co-founder. Intelisys built the most sophisticated computer-controlled system ever developed for a house. A network of PCs controlled nearly every subsystem in the house.

1981-1986: Future Computing
Chairman & co-founder. Future Computing grew from three people in 1980 to 150+ in 1984 when McGraw-Hill purchased the company. His main responsibility was to generate the information and consulting services that Future Computing offered. During this time he either co-authored or oversaw the development of over 50 market research reports focusing on the PC industry. A major source of Future Computing's success came from two-day technology and market forums that attracted the top PC industry people. These forums focused on a specific technology or market segment and brought together the most knowledgeable speakers and attendees. He gave one or two presentations at the 40+ forums held--usually a market and technically overview to start the forum and a market opportunity assessment to end the forum. He also wrote or oversaw the contents of one monthly newsletter, which grew to six newsletters. During this time he also kept a heavy consulting schedule with numerous meetings and presentations with nearly every major PC hardware and software vendors.

1977-1981: Texas Instruments' Corporate Engineering Center
Senior Member of Technical Staff. Main responsibility was to look at new technologies within and outside TI, assess their market potential and recommend TI actions and product opportunities. Started several projects that were later turned over to TI product groups. One was a revolutionary three-inch flexible disc product. Another was TI's future 32-bit microprocessor chip architecture. He also headed numerous speech writing effort for TI's top management for internal and external strategy direction presentations.

1973-1977: Texas Instruments' Central Research Laboratory
Member of Technical Staff (MTS). Research and design responsibilities with focus on memory technologies. Received one bubble memory technology patent. His job evolved into assessing and evaluating new technologies and their potential market and product opportunities for TI. Maintained Top Secret clearance for government contracts.

1972-1973: Norden-United Technologies
Engineer with responsibilities for designing military display systems. Received Top Secret clearance for government contracts.
 

Professional Activities and Honors

• Advisory Board SunWorld conference, 1992-1994
• Advisory Board COMDEX conference, 1985-1993
• Advisory Board of Corporate Computing magazine, 1992-1993
• Columnist for Workstation News, 1990-1992
• Columnist for Computer & Software News, 1987-1989
• Columnist of Computer Reseller News, 1985-1987
• Associate Editor of IEEE Computer Magazine, 1979-1981
• Advisory Board of IEEE Computer Society's Compcon conference, 1979
• Advisory Board of IEEE's Midcon conference, 1978

Publications & Presentations

He has done over 150 presentations and over 100 publications and magazine articles in the last 20 years. Here are some highlights.

Books
Co-author of eight Computer Industry Almanacs, a 800-page reference book, and one Internet Industry Almanac, a 400-page reference book. Chapter 1 in each book is an overview of the industry, its structure, key technologies and product segments. Chapter 4 in each book has a segment on future technology trends including technology driving forces, important industry trends and five-year product capability projections.

Market Research Reports
Co-authored or managed the content for over 50 Future Computing market research reports focusing on every aspect of the PC industry. These reports usually contained an overview of the market segment and the technology, leading products and companies, requirements and strategies for success and a market forecast. The topics of these reports range from product segment reports (i.e. portable PCs, PC LANs, PC printers, operating systems, spreadsheets), PC user market segments (i.e. Fortune 1000, Small businesses, Home market), distribution channels (i.e. PC retailers, VARs) and the impact of major new product announcements (IBM's PC, Apple Macintosh). The best known report called “IBM's Billion Dollar Baby” predicted the success of IBM's entry in the PC market one week after the IBM's PC was introduced.

Invited Magazine Articles
He has done several invited articles for important computer magazines:

• An overview of computer technology trends for IEEE Spectrum Magazine's 1996 technology trends issue.
• An overview of PC technology trends for IEEE Spectrum Magazine's 1994 technology trends issue.
• A competitive report on workstations versus high-end PCs for IEEE Spectrum Magazine April 1993.
• A projection of future portable PC technology and capabilities for Computerworld's 1992 technology trend issue.