Cringely's more recent work has been kind of hit or miss, though.
It actually has some good start-up lessons in there!
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/1998/pulpit_19980724_0005...
Yes, that is flawed logic. But it's what people tend to want. So if you're trying to make a quick buck that's what you latch on.
If, on the other hand, you're following your intrinsic curiotsity you want to study fallen giants to see what can be learned from past mistakes. Now, none of that is sexy. "Fallen," "past" and "mistakes" are not words you tend to see on business book jackets. But some writers will do such a book anyway.
I'm not saying Cringely is automatically to be trusted here, but it's not accurate to say books like this are often written to make a quick buck. If you want a quick buck you write something glowing and positive and no one will complain.
I've read him since back in his InfoWorld days. For the most part I'd say "non-sensationalist", unlike say, Dvorak. I'd don't know that I'd classify him as a reporter, but more like a pundit. I mean, I don't look to Cringely for hard facts but more his take on the facts that we collectively know.
Anyway, were it the type of thing I care to read about I'd buy his book.
EDIT: "Crinkly"? Seriously, Android auto-correct? (Though to be fair, Mac OS X tried the same thing when I fixed it.)
Having read his many articles about IBM, he's very nostalgic about a "great" company that's failing. I think the book is passion project for him because he likes IBM (or liked the old IBM).
[1] I mean this Cringely, the famous Cringely, in case you're not aware that this is a pen name and that there have been a string of mediocre writers using the same pen name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely
It's kind of hard to say. I've been following his stuff since sometime in the 90's, and he's definitely brash and opinionated (at times anyway), but I don't know if I'd exactly say he's "sensationalistic". I'd probably take his work with a small grain of salt, but I don't see him as somebody who just "makes shit up" out of the air.
[1] http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070504_0020...
He's been writing about tech since 1987, initially with InfoWorld.
Said IBM was going to lay off 150k by the end of the year like 5 yeArs ago
Now he writes a captain obvious book that could apply to anyone in the industry.
A quote from the intro that seems like a bit of a red flag: "The book had to be written because writing the same story over and over for seven years hasn’t changed anything."