Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/65907
'Steady as She Goes' for the Workstation Market T he workstation market proceeded ahead in the fourth quarter of 2011, completing a long climb back from the 2009 depths of the global economic recession that had slashed its shipments by over 40 percent. But that fourth-quar- ter advance was more a case of "steady as she goes" than "full speed ahead," reports Jon Peddie Research Senior Analyst Alex Herrera. The leading market research firm has completed its data collection and analy- sis of results from the quarter and finds Q4 followed the same basic storyline Herrera had been laying out over the previous few quarters. The market has not only fully recovered from the reces- sion, it's showing continued stability and some undeniable signs of strength. But at the same time, there remains scat- tered pockets of concern, as the market has yet to resume the pace of growth it sustained back in the years 2005 through 2008. In the third quarter, the market for the Intuos5 Pen Tablet Wacom's Intuos5, its next-generation lineup of tablets for professionals, sports a number of new features, including multi-touch gesture support for intuitive input, an Express View display to facilitate an efficient workflow, and wireless capabilities. With its ergonomic, ambidextrous design and bold, new look, the slim-profile Intuos5 comes in three different sizes for the Americas (small, medium, and large)—priced at under $230, $350, and $470, respec- tively—to accommodate creative preferences. The addition of multi-touch provides a complementary input method to the pen that is more natural to use in the creative process. One of the benefits of multi-touch is its support of gestures (standard Windows, Mac, or custom- ized) to zoom, scroll, pan, and rotate digital content, all while remaining focused on the creative process. first time exceeded one million units shipped, clear evidence it had more than made up for the steep decline of late 2008 and 2009. Q4 couldn't quite cross that million-unit mark, although it came close. All told, approximately 998,900 workstations shipped worldwide, representing a healthy—but by no means, torrid—10.5% year-over-year gain. Responsible for 41.3% of units shipped in the fourth quarter, HP now holds unquestioned control over the worksta- tion market, clearly separating itself from Dell at 33.4%. But the company suffered an uncharacteristic and self-imposed setback in the third quarter when then- CEO Leo Apotheker put into doubt the future of HP workstations by essen- tially putting its parent business unit, the Personal Systems Group, on the trading block. And that raised the question as to whether management's questionable move might be reflected in a market- share dip, even a very temporary one. That does appear to be the case, as HP's share bucked previous trends and slipped in the fourth quarter. Still, the firm doesn't think HP has done any long-term damage with its about-face. Consider- ing the company's continuing aggressive posture in the marketplace—witness the impressive new Z1 all-in-one worksta- tion—Herrera believes HP's decline will be limited to a short-term bump in the road. With a few solid, if not spectacular, recent GPU generations under its belt, AMD had been able to steal several share points from market leader Nvidia. While the magnitude of AMD's gain, and corresponding Nvidia decline, was by no means game changing, it was statistically significant. The company's FirePro brand had been taking its market share steadily upward, topping out at 19.5% in the third quarter of 2011. However, it appears the limited momentum AMD's been able to muster ran out of steam in Q4. Not only did AMD's FirePro brand not gain on Nvidia's Quadro, it took a small step backward, coming in at 18.4%. The Foundry Gives Industry Its Hiero T he Foundry has launched Hiero, a lightweight shot manager for VFX for conforming, reviewing, and exporting shots to visual effects artists and into finishing systems. (Hiero 1.0 is not a compositor or a system for finishing, grading, or editing.) The offering works seamlessly with The Foundry's Nuke and NukeX, but also enables collaborative working with other editorial, VFX, and finishing tools. Hiero removes human error by automatically creating a file structure based on rules that can be created by users as they conform and parcel out VFX shots to multiple Nuke artists. 6 April/May 2012