Over the past decade Dr Obbink, Dr Kovalchuk and their team have both improved the hardware of multispectral analysis (which was originally developed by America's space agency, NASA), and written more sophisticated algorithms to analyse what is seen.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

According to our analysis, PC hardware now constitutes nearly 27% percent of its value, while services accounts for nearly 26% of its value.

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Also likely in 1999: drives that use predictive failure analysis to warn you of hardware problems that could hasten a crash.

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HP, which has a more integrated hardware business and is trying to move into analysis software is off 1.2%.

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This is critical analysis for any online game company, PC hardware maker, components maker, service provider, or institutional investor with an eye on China.

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"It's part of a growing trend to integrate hardware, software and services, " says Ross Rubin, director of consumer technology industry analysis for the NPD Group.

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