GLG News by Semiconductor Experts in GLG Member Programs (California)

Semi sales are trending up significantly. This year will see significant growth over 2006. Current statistics dwell on difficulties at start of 2007 Bodes well for semi makers.  Less well for users.

Network Appliance (NetApp) would like the world to believe their problems lie with the market, but the data does not seem to support that position. Maintaining market position will be increasingly difficult for them unless something changes.

Open source is not likely to ever dominate the enterprise software market, but it will change the market permanently. The competition with open source is forcing proprietary software vendors to change or die.

More details continue to leak out about the long-anticipated Google phone. Google still has a lot of hurdles to cross to make a successful business from this, but it’s going to change the business for the carriers regardless.

Any disruption to the supply of a device can impact prices and availability.  This will have a short-term negative impact on DRAM and NAND purchasers who are the major PC, MP3, and module makers, and a positive pricing impact on other memory chip makers.

Oracle may be late to the SaaS game, but they’re moving fast to catch up. The latest Siebel On Demand product is easier to use and has excellent functionality. Salesforce is still strong, but each time they take a hit it has to hurt.

A Microsoft branded PC would increase Microsoft’s revenue significantly. It would also create tension between Microsoft and PC manufacturers. Can Microsoft make such a strategy work economically?

The odd spelling of Numonyx' name may imply the company's direction. Numonyx is in a strong position with the PRAM, a technology poised to displace existing flash technology over the coming decade. Their PRAM technology is licensed from Ovonyx, a subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices (ECD).

Everyone agrees Vista is the operating system of the future. The big question is – when is the “future”? And the answer is – “Not soon!”

The “easy life” for Salesforce is now over. The ultimate winner of this war won’t be determined for several years. Regardless of whether Microsoft wins, Salesforce will lose something.