Entries by Ben Carbonneau, Senior Data Analyst

Hardware-centric Vendors Continue to Make Their Move Into Software

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Though revenue mixes are increasingly shifting in favor of software, driven in part by acquisitions (e.g., Cisco’s purchase of Splunk), hardware continues to dominate the market, accounting for 80% of benchmarked vendor revenue in 3Q24. Industry-standard servers being sold to cloud and GPU “as a Service” providers are overwhelmingly fueling market growth, more than offsetting unfavorable cyclical demand weakness in the storage and networking markets.

AI Agents: What Are They, and How Will They Impact the AI PC Space in 2025?

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Over the past several quarters, OEMs have focused on incorporating local AI-powered features into their new PC releases, with initial neural processing unit (NPU)-enabled use cases leveraging AI to further enhance collaboration experiences and extend battery life. However, AI agents take the NPU’s functionality a step further, combining the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) with other resources to partially or fully automate a wide range of tasks, including responding to emails, booking hotel stays, or opening and closing IT help desk tickets.

AI Buzz Sparks IT Infrastructure Shifts, but Privacy and Strategic Challenges Are Impacting Adoption

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The industry enthusiasm surrounding AI has quickly led to shifts in organizations’ strategic priorities and expected investments such as demand for servers. Despite the hype, few organizations have operationalized GenAI to date. Instead, most are focused on overcoming initial barriers to adoption, including understanding the business implications of this new technology frontier.

AI PCs: Progress, Potential and Hurdles in Redefining the Market in 2025

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When OEMs first started releasing AI PCs, they shared expectations that the advent of this new product category would help drive the next major PC refresh cycle. However, even as vendors continue to roll out new generations of AI PCs containing increasingly powerful NPUs, adoption remains relatively slow. To build out the market and drive greater adoption of AI PCs over the next few years, silicon providers, PC OEMs and ISVs will need to collaborate around and invest in developing applications that increase the functionality of these devices beyond what can be achieved by a traditional, non-AI PC.

Hybrid AI: Lenovo Builds a Portfolio Ready to Address the Confluence of Personal, Enterprise and Public Data

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Underneath the enthusiasm for hybrid AI, Lenovo’s mission remains unchanged: It is driving transformation to become a technology leader in global devices, infrastructure solutions and services worldwide. Lenovo positions itself as having an end-to-end technology portfolio, a user-centered approach and an immense emphasis on open innovation. The company offers its customers choices thanks to its partnerships across semiconductor, AI platforms and ISVs; and it leverages its Solutions and Services Group to accelerate solution development between its own portfolio and partner ecosystem.

SoftwareOne: Gritty, Determined, Local

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SoftwareOne has captured the current market vibe and positioned itself well to continue its transformation from a VAR, primarily involved in cloud and software resale, to a truly full-service IT company. Learn more key takeaways from SoftwareOne Industry Analyst Summit 2024 in this TBR special report.