Top 5 Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2016

Top 5 Computer Hardware Companies To Invest In 2016: Western Digital Corp (WDC)

Western Digital Corporation (WD) is a provider of solutions for the collection, storage, management, protection and use of digital content, including audio and video. Its principal products are hard drives, which are devices that use one or more rotating magnetic disks (magnetic media) to store and allow access to data. Its hard drives are used in desktop and notebook computers, corporate and cloud computing data centers, home entertainment equipment and stand-alone consumer storage devices. In addition to hard drives, its other products include solid-state drives and home entertainment and networking products. The Company operates as the parent company of its hard drive business, Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Effective March 8, 2012, the Company acquired Viviti Technologies Ltd. In May 2012, the Company completed the divestiture of certain 3.5-inch hard drive assets to Toshiba Corporation. As part of its deal with Toshiba, WD also completed its purchase of Toshiba St orage Device (Thailand) Company Limited (TSDT), which manufactured hard drives.

The Company offers a line of storage devices. Its hard drives include 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, capacities ranging from 80 gigabytes to three terabytes, nominal rotation speeds up to 10,000 revolutions per minute, and interfaces, such as Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) (SAS). In addition, the Company offers a family of hard drives specifically designed to consume less power than standard drives, utilizing its WD GreenPower Technology. Its solid-state drives include 2.5-inch and Compact Flash form factors, capacities ranging from 1 gigabyte to 256 gigabytes, and interfaces, such as SATA and PATA.

Client Compute Storage Products

Client compute co! nsists of hard drives and solid-state drives for desktop and mobile personal computers (PC's). During the fiscal year ended July 1 , 2011 (fiscal 2011), it shipped 151 million hard drive clie! nt compute unit. Its client compute storage products include WD Caviar, WD Scorpio and WD Silicon Edge. WD Caviar family of hard drives is designed for use in desktop PCs. WD Scorpio family of hard drives is designed for use in mobile PCs. WD Silicon Edge family of solid-state drives is designed for both read-intensive client/consumer applications and write-intensive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) applications.

Client Non-Compute Storage Products

Client non-compute consists of branded products and consumer electronics products. Its hard drive client non-compute unit shipments were 46 million, during fiscal 2011.

Branded Products

Branded products consists of hard drives embedded into WD-branded external storage appliances with capacities ranging from 250 gigabytes to 8 terabytes and using interfaces, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, USB 3.0, external SATA, FireWire and Ethernet network connections. Cert ain branded products models include software that assists customers with back up, remote access and management of digital content. Branded products also include its home entertainment and networking products. Its branded products include My Book and WD Elements Desktop family of storage appliances. My Passport and WD Elements Portable family of storage appliances include WD ShareSpace, WD TV and WD Livewire.

My Book and WD Elements Desktop family of storage appliances are designed to add external capacity to desktops and digital video recorders (DVRs), allow for the transfer and storage of videos directly from certain camcorders, and connect to networks to simplify storage for consumers. My Passport and WD Elements Portable family of storage appliances are designed for external portability weighing less than one-half of a pou! nd and al! low for the transfer and storage of videos directly from certain camcorders. WD ShareSpace is a network-attached storage system de signed for home office or small office applications. WD TV m! edia play! ers connect to a user's television or home theater system and play digital movies, music and photos from an integrated hard drive, network hard drives, any of its WD-branded external hard drives, other USB mass storage devices or content services accessed over the Internet. WD Livewire, which enables consumers to use their existing electrical outlets to extend Internet connections throughout the home.

Consumer Electronics Products

WD AV family of hard drives is designed for use in products, such as DVRs and audio and video applications. WD AV drives deliver the characteristics CE manufacturers.

Enterprise Storage Products

Enterprise consists of hard drives for traditional enterprise and nearline storage applications, as well as solid-state drives for embedded applications. Its hard drive enterprise unit shipments were 10 million, for fiscal 2011. Its enterprise storage products include WD S25 hard drive, WD VelociRaptor, WD RE and WD SiliconDrive. WD S25 hard drive is designed for mission-critical enterprise server and storage applications, such as data centers and data arrays. WD VelociRaptor hard drive is designed for enterprise server and storage applications. This hard drive is also used in the high-end desktop PC market for applications including gaming, servers and advanced computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems. WD RE family of hard drives is designed for nearline storage enterprise applications. WD SiliconDrive family of solid-state drives features fast read/write speeds in high capacities and is designed for embedded system OEM applications.

The Company competes with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Intel Corporation, Micron Technology, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seagate Technolog! y, STEC, ! Inc. and Toshiba Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC  ) reported earnings for the first quarter of its 2015 fiscal year this afternoon. The hard-disk-drive leader generated $3.94 billion in revenue for the quarter ended in September, resulting in adjusted earnings of $2.10 per share, and both results topped Wall Street's expectations. Analysts had modeled $3.89 billion in revenue and $2.03 in adjusted EPS.

• [By jha1910]

  The capacity drive industry is a duopoly with Western Digital (WDC) and Seagate Technology (STX) leading the way. Both organizations were on an equivalent balance a year ago with a 43% offer of the hard-plate drive, or HDD market. In any case, Western Digital has hurried ahead with a 45% offer, while Seagate lingers behind with 40% of the business sector. Also focused around a couple of basic presumptions, I think this hole could enlarge further.

• [By Anders Bylund]

  I'm thinking about computer hard drives. After a bevy of buyouts, the names to consider in this space are Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC  ) and Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX  ) .

• [By ICRAOnline]

  Hard disk drive (HDD) maker Western Digital (WDC) reported its fourth-quarter 2014 results topping Street's expectations. Despite this, shares fell 2.64% in the after-hours. Let's have a detailed view of the quarter's results.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-5-computer-hardware-companies-to-invest-in-2016.html