Antoine,
<<To sharpen the focus back again, what does this mean to dd producers? Doesn't either scenario potentially disrupt the high end development model? Either the low end doesn't need much more and can't help as much in spreading costs of development, or the new appliance will roll out gradually.>>
With reference to your concerns about the evolution of the PC, and attendant storage requirements I was going to go find the references to statistics such as just how much of the world market is not yet pc literate or, how much paper still resides out there, and then a list of all the fantastic applications that prognosticators are talking about. However I am a bit jammed up so I will try to comment on the general scene and provide links as time goes on.
You may have noticed Katherine Derbyshire's response on the semi conductor equipment thread when a poster posed a similar question. If not you may want to go visit that thread and catch the following:
Message 6357611
She is a very astute observer IMO and worth bookmarking especially in terms of technology related to the semiconductor industry. I also responded to the question on that thread with this:
Message 6356019
There is a great deal of teeth gnashing over the continued evolution of computing both at the high end (Corporate) where a centralized computing model has rapidly been readopted (reversing the trend to distributed computing which appeared with the early advent of lower cost mini computers and PCs), and at the single user end (SOHOs, Home computing, mobile computing, Internut juggernuts, etc etc). The advent of palm top devices, set top boxes, and other appliance type apps are causing those of us who grew up with WINTEL tatooed somewhere on our tush to take strong notice and even, in some cases, to wring our hands. But for the same reason that Katherine comments that settop boxes doesn't spell the end of semiconductors (and actually may mark a new beginning) I feel that the appliance computing movement is only good for the data storage industry. I see no disruption at all to the development cycles going on the DD world. Each advance, ultimately, creates market and of this I am thoroughly convinced. There is an underlying inevitable here. That the world wants to store and exchange information, and more of it. Simple and inexorable IMO. There is a second inevitable, and that is that the chalenge to make money in the DD sector gets more and more difficult. But the prize is big IMO.
P.S., just in case there is confusion, you may want to look at SEG's revenue breakdowns at their web page link I mentioned in a previous post a while back. It shows the desktop and high end revenue splits that will give you a basic understanding of how the terms are used. In addition there is the sector called "mobile" computing that typically uses a 2.5 inch drive. There is also further segmentation in that there is corporate and high end work station (single user, linked).
Best,
Stitch |
