Meet San Francisco’s 101 Top Founders in the Consulting Space

Bob O’Donnell

Founder and Chief Analyst of TECHnalysis Research

Bob O’Donnell, the president, founder and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, has a lengthy, multi-faceted career in the technology business. He is widely regarded as an expert in the technology market research field and his original research and advice is used by executives in large technology firms all over the world. A little more than a year after the firm’s founding, O’Donnell made it onto AR Insight’s list of most influential analysts. The firm’s research has been cited many times by major media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg TV, Investor’s Business Daily and more. The Harvard Business Review recently partnered with the firm for a webinar on mobility trends in the enterprise. O’Donnell writes a weekly column/blog for Tech.pinions.com that’s also published on re/code, TechSpot, SeekingAlpha and LinkedIn, and writes a biweekly column for the Tech section of USAToday. He also occasionally writes additional guest columns for re/code and other digital publications. In addition, he participates in a weekly podcast for Tech.pinions. Prior to founding TECHnalysis Research, O’Donnell served as Program Vice President, Clients and Displays for industry research firm IDC. He spent 14+ years at IDC, rising from a Research Manager covering monitor and display technologies to a highly successful VP responsible for the company’s worldwide mobile phone, tablet, PC and thin client research, as well as the ODM production of notebooks. O’Donnell also led IDC’s display research program, which tracked both the sales and technology trends affecting the worldwide market for computer monitors, televisions and related technologies, as well as the market for large LCD panels, touch panels and ODM production of monitors and TVs. During his last five years there, O’Donnell worked extensively with sell side and buy side financial clients around the world through the company’s Investment Research Services (IRS) and Tech Investor groups and their partnerships with Instinet and Bloomberg TradeBook. O’Donnell is the author of “Personal Computer Secrets,” originally published by IDG Books, a 936-page reference volume on all aspects of computer technology and usage. For 10 ½ years, he also hosted “O’Donnell on Technology,” which was selected as the Best Computer Audio program in the country—either over the air or on the web—in the 15th Annual Computer Press Awards competition. The program was the #1-rated computer call-in talk show in Silicon Valley. Mr. O’Donnell is a highly regarded speaker and is regularly featured on CNBC (US and Asia), WSJ Digits and Bloomberg TV, and has done numerous appearances on CNN, Canada’s CBC and China’s CCTV. He has also served as a guest lecturer at Stanford University and was featured at a USC School of Medicine conference on wearable computing trends. O’Donnell is widely quoted in the major press, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USAToday, Forbes, BusinessWeek and many more. O’Donnell began his work in the high-tech industry at Music Technology magazine, and then moved on to the editor role at Electronic Musician magazine. During his tenure there, the magazine was awarded a prestigious Western Publisher’s Association Maggie Award for Best Special Interest publication. After several years in the music industry, O’Donnell became Executive Editor/Reviews at MacWeek, where he helped create MacWeek’s lab facilities and was involved in the development of the MacBench benchmark. He also served as Features Editor at PC/Computing magazine and as Executive Editor of InfoWorld Electric/InfoWorld.com, the website for InfoWorld magazine. For 3+ years, O’Donnell wrote InfoWorld Electric’s popular “Plugged In” weekly column, which was featured numerous times at CNN.com. His writing has appeared in magazines all over the world. Other television work that O’Donnell has done includes serving as the computer expert for Knowledge TV’s “Meeting the Challenge” program. He also was a featured reporter on the nationally syndicated “Silicon Valley Business” program and was a frequent guest on several other shows, including TechTV’s (formerly ZDTV) “Silicon Spin” and “Call for Help” and BayTV’s “All Consuming.” O’Donnell is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, with a B.A. in the Program of Liberal Studies, an interdisciplinary humanities program based on the Great Books. Just for fun, O’Donnell started a horn-based band called The Headliners, for which he plays trombone and composes original songs.

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About TECHnalysis Research: TECHanalysis Research provides strategic consulting and market research services to technology vendors.

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