Austin companies flaunt new products, share plans at gadget show

Each year, thousands of people flock to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, where companies like Dell Technologies and AMD take the stage and show off their upcoming tech for the year.

Analysts who attended CES 2020, which took place Jan. 7-10, spoke to the American-Statesman about some of the tech and industry trends they saw throughout the week.

Dell Technologies

Round Rock-based Dell Technologies showed off updates to two of its laptop series: the Latitude and the XPS — both of which garnered some praise from analysts.

The company said it will be launching its Latitude 9000 series, with its flagship -- the Latitude 9510 — a new commercial laptop that has AI-enabled optimization features.

Dell also unveiled its new XPS 13 laptop, which received attention for its new “four-sided InfinityEdge Display.”

Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, said the two products were among the company’s strongest showings at the electronics show in recent years.

“I think Dell understands the discrete needs of different customer groups and those two products are emblematic of the company’s ability to serve those requirements,” King said.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead, of Moor Insights and Strategy, said the gadget show highlights for Dell were the company’s concept products, which included a foldable laptop as well as a portable gaming device.

“Dell keeps ramping up its CES presence each year. I see this as a commitment to the PC market, especially the premium PC market,” Moorhead said.

AMD v. Intel

AMD and Intel have long been rivals in the computer processor market.

AMD is formally headquartered in California, but most of its operations and executives are based in Austin. Intel has operations in the city, with about 1,700 employees.

At CES, AMD introduced a new processor for laptops as part of the company’s popular Ryzen processor product line. The company said it will be launching a new graphics card, the Radeon RX 5600 XT.

“AMD’s keynote at CES was terrific. (CEO) Lisa Su did very well,” King said. “It was not only trumpeting the company’s past performance but demonstrating that they have a clear way forward to build on the success that they had last year.”

King said Intel has had some turmoil in recent years, referring to difficulties related to the company’s leadership, but said the company is poised to make a strong comeback this year.

“[CEO] Bob Swan and the Intel team came out swinging in their own keynote. If Intel has faced some challenges in the past year or so, they’re driving in very strongly into 2020 with plans to make up for lost time.”

Rob Enderle, analyst for Enderle Group, said Intel’s presentation focused on the different ways the company’s technology is being used in new innovations.

“Intel was showing their breadth, and they were showcasing a lot of the advancements they made with autonomous cars and artificial intelligence,” Enderle said.

IoT and automotive

“IoT” is shorthand for “internet of things,” a tech industry term for non-computing devices -- such as appliances or lamps -- that are connected to the Internet.

Austin-based Silicon Labs, which a large presence in the IoT-related chip market, unveiled several new products that the company said would improve Bluetooth functionality.

The company also announced a partnership with Quuppa for the Finland-based company’s Bluetooth direction finding technology.

NXP Technologies, which is based in Netherlands, has about 4,000 employees in Austin. The semiconductor company acquired Austin-based Freescale Semiconductor for $11.6 billion in late 2015.

NXP announced several products -- some which were designed and engineered in Austin -- for electric and autonomous vehicles, including its “i.MX 8QuadMax,” a computer chip that will enable more screens to be placed on the dashboards of vehicles.

IHS Markit Analyst Phil Amsrud said he did not see many breakthrough technologies related to autonomous and electric vehicles at this year’s CES.

“This year’s show was less about talking about vision, and it was more about the implementation,” he said.

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