Study Group: IT Hardware Experts: GLG Leaders

GLG News^SM Analyses by this Study Group's Leading Experts(?)

Salesforce's Benioff Delivers at Dreamforce. Revenue Builders or Social Fodder?

November 19, 2009

Analysis by:Ryan Bott, Director of Channel/OEM Development,

Analysis of:Salesforce.com Announces new Social Applications | www.thestandard.com

Salesforce.com announced major initiatives with Computer Associates,Facebook and Twitter all around their new Chatter feature which Mark Benioff calls the greatest changes since Dreamforce.com began 8 yrs ago. But are these additions social fodder or new streams of revenue for the CRM giant?

Vast small hard drives fuel new consumer applications and smaller computers

November 8, 2009

Analysis by:Thomas Coughlin, President,

Analysis of:Toshiba Introduces Two 1.8-Inch Hard Disk Drive Families for Both High Performance and Long Battery Life in Mobile Computing Applications | www.earthtimes.org

After its merger with Fujitsu, Toshiba is now the largest manufacturer of mobile hard disk drives (HDDs) (2.5 inch and 1.8 inch HDDs). Toshiba is also the largest manufacturer of 1.8-inch HDDs and the company has just introduced a HDD in this form factor with 320 GB storage capacity. This 2-disk 1.8-inch drive offers the highest storage capacity in such a small package and will enable more consumer and mobile computer applications

Optical disc drives being replaced by flash memory in computers?

November 4, 2009

Analysis by:Thomas Coughlin, President,

Analysis of:PC makeover: slimmer profile, no DVD drive | www.mercurynews.com

Many PC makers are not including optical drives, especially for laptops and netbooks. Leaving out optical drives is being done not to reduce cost but to allow slimmer laptop and netbook computers. Flash memory with built in programs and entertainment content are now on the market in USB as well as memory card formats. Downloading content and applications has become more common, replacing one of the big uses for optical drives in computers. As flash memory $/GB declines and as write speeds for flash devices improve will these devices replace current optical disk physical distribution formats?

The Forecast Mix Of Mr. Naimi, El Nino, An Oil Contango And The H1N1 Flu

September 23, 2009

Analysis by:Simon Atkins, CEO, Senior Industrial Disaster Threat Forecaster,

Analysis of:The Old Man and the Sea of Oil | www.rigzone.com

For many a wrong reason, bulls in crude believe that the “Old Man” (Mr. Naimi) is right (in his saying there has been "a fundamental change" in the oil market) when he says that the global economy is recovering.  In addition, many oil bulls think the “Little Boy” (El Nino) will remain weak this winter despite most forecasts saying it won’t.  To top off the confusing mix of signals, let’s mix in the H1N1 flu. It’s strange, but the mix might be something that needs to go into a risk portfolio.

Rare earth metals ban by China could impact hard disk drive production

September 22, 2009

Analysis by:Thomas Coughlin, President,

Analysis of:World faces hi-tech crunch as China eyes ban on rare metals exports | www.telegraph.co.uk

China has been the single largest supplier country for rare earth metals such as terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, lutetium, neodymium, europium, cerium and lanthanum. China is contemplating a ban of some of these metals and restrictions on supply on many others. Many vital technologies are dependent upon rare earth metals such as motors, hard disk drives, electronics and illumination. There are deposits of rare earth ores in the North America, South Africa, and Australia but it may take years to bring these online.

View All GLG News by members of this Study Group