The release of next-generation consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will propel the U.S. market for video game consoles from $8.7 billion in 2004 to $11.7 billion in 2010, according to a report from Jupiter Research. The nearly $4 billion in revenue growth is projected despite an anticipated overall slowing of audience growth for game consoles: the firm predicts 2 percent annualized growth in the installed base for upcoming consoles, compared with the 8 percent annualized growth in installed base experienced by the current generation of consoles. Jupiter also predicted that Microsoft would reap only modest benefits should it launch its Xbox 360 this fall, ahead of its competitors, in contrast to the impressive head start that Sony got with its first-to-market launch of the PlayStation 2. "The market is going to be more evenly split this round -- regardless of when the players launch," said Jupiter senior analyst Jay Horwitz.
Commercial interest in Generative AI (GenAI) tools has reached a fever pitch, and the latest forecast from Gartner amplifies this emerging trend. Gartner predicts $644 billion in worldwide spending on GenAI in 2025, marking a dramatic 76.4 percent increase from the previous year. This surge underscores the impact GenAI will have across industries. It also requires a closer examination of the underlying dynamics of future potential. Generative AI Market Development This growth is fueled by the GenAI foundational model providers who invest billions into enhancing the size, performance, and reliability of their models. Hardware also accounts for a significant portion of this spending, with ~80 percent allocated to servers, smartphones, and PCs equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities. This highlights the critical need for computational power to support the demanding workloads of GenAI. However, Gartner also injects a dose of reality into the GenAI hype cycle. There's a dec...