Trends & Market Research

Varjo adds chroma-keying for realtime AR

Finnish-based Varjo has added realtime chroma-keying and object-tracking to its XR-1 Developer Edition headset. Chroma-keying, also known as green-screening, has been used extensively in film making and broadcasting (think scrimmage line). Varjo has added that capability and is claiming to be the first company to do so for mixed reality devices. With object tracking, says the company, professional users can … Read more

AMD bullish

Join AMD and you too can have a ball on your cheek   If any company in the computer industry can be described as the comeback kid, it’s AMD. All but written off eight years ago, AMD has risen out of the ashes with remarkable momentum and accomplishments. The company has grown market share in all segments from Client to … Read more

Autodesk celebrates business model transition

Autodesk had a very good 2019, thanks primarily to the work it has been doing in construction and AEC. But also the company says they have successfully made the transition to their subscription business model, grew their cloud-based services by a convincing percentage, and demonstrated they’re in a position to add growth.  A good argument for subscription: now that the transition … Read more

Can LetinAR deliver lightweight consumer glasses?

If AR glasses are ever to become common accessories for daily life and work, they are going to have to be lightweight, comfortable, and indistinguishable from prescription or sunglasses. For those glasses to be really useful, they’re going to have to be powerful—able to deliver a blended view of digital information with the real world. LetinAR, a Korean company, says … Read more

PTC says look for growth in 2020

PTC issued an optimistic release for the fiscal first quarter of 2020. The company came through a rough 2019 with problems in its channel and problems converting customers to subscription at the expected rate. The company said it knew about the problem and that they’ve pulled the right levers to fix it.  They seem to be right. The company had … Read more

AMD Q4 2019 results: revenues, margins

AMD turned 50 in May 2019   Despite a great quarter, AMD’s stock was down about 2.6% after the company reported its Q4’19 which beats Wall Street estimates. The problem was the company’s guidance for Q1’20 was slightly below what Wall Street anticipated. The company announced revenue for Q4’19 of $2.13 billion, operating income of $348 million, net income of … Read more

Intel Q4 2019 results

  Intel beat Wall Street’s expectations again with its fourth-quarter financial performance sending the company’s stock up to an all-time high Friday after the chipmaker reported late-Thursday afternoon terrific results for the last quarter in 2019. Twenty billion dollars. Think about that for a moment. If every human, man, woman, child or politician, oh wait, I did say, human, if … Read more

HP at CES

The PC business is pretty standardized these days. People know they want a computer, a display, a mouse, a tablet. Many of those people know they’d rather have a major brand for the reassurance of support and security. So, the struggle for the PC companies is to figure out some way to stand out and thrive selling similar stuff to … Read more

The PC OEMs at CES, the early look

CES is all about show, whether it's the biggest TV ever or the most pixels one can cram into a computer display. So, not surprisingly, on the PC side, monitors are big, bezels are small, resolutions are high, and they’ve got new stands! Dell has updated its display manager with options for multiple window layouts and multi-mon setups. We’re also … Read more

VR on the rise at CES

There are people who are wandering the halls at CES so we don’t have to. Among them are the people from VRScout who posted an early heads up on Panasonic’s new VR glasses. The pitch from Panasonic is that these are the first glasses that eliminate the screen-door effect. They’re not. Varjo’s glasses don’t have a hint of screen door, … Read more