Intel is one of those rare tech companies – IBM also comes to mind – that has successfully reinvented itself with each new wave of technological disruption. So, in our post-PC, networked age, how should we define Intel now? According to their new CIO, Kim Stevenson, Intel is a “computing company” that is now trying to be “startup-like”. And one disruptive area that Stevenson believes is “unexploited” is 3D visualization applications – products which make visual sense of big data. There’s a “market gap” here, Stevenson told me.
3D visualization is “for real”, she explained, because 3D camera costs have come down and because so many of our products are touch and gesture enabled. This may be one reason why, as Stevenson reminded me, Intel is getting into the device business. And it’s certainly one area that intrigues their investment arm, Intel Capital. I suspect Stevenson is right. Since the late nineties, when I ran business development for Pulse3D, 3D has always been the product of the future. But this future has finally arrived and I suspect that Intel’s latest reinvention will be to ride this immersive wave.