JOBS IN HAREWARE -4

Computer Hardware
Overview


Computer hardware, as we use the term, means central processing units (CPUs), including memory and storage—in other words, the machine on which you run an operating system and application software and to which you attach peripherals (keyboards, mice, printers, etc.). Also included in our definition are the servers, electronic security, and storage devices used in the data centers of many corporations.

Computer hardware and software are useless without each other. But working together they store, modify, and exchange data: words, pictures, and numbers—everything from correspondence to news photos, from drawings of jet aircraft to shipping manifests, from news releases to financial reports, from census statistics to stock quotes, from maps to email.

The competition among computer hardware companies is particularly intense. On the one hand, in the traditional PC market, companies' products have largely become commodified, with constant downward price pressure (and narrowing profit margins) being the result. On the other hand, there are markets for innovative new products, like tablet PCs and ultra-minimal desktops, that are not yet fully commodified. Here, the race is on to develop products at breakneck speed so you can be first to market. And if a company falters, it instantly becomes a target for larger companies looking to acquire new businesses. No doubt about it: Computer hardware is a cutthroat business.

There are definite geographic concentrations in the hardware industry despite its worldwide reach. It's often noted that high-tech companies are usually located near colleges and universities, and there's a good deal of truth to that, as many companies come out of research done at such institutions. Silicon Valley is near San Jose State, the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University. Route 128 is near the educational mecca of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Research Triangle in North Carolina and the area around Austin, Texas, are also good examples. Still, there are other places within North America where you'll find major hardware companies; for example, Gateway is in North Dakota.

Most major corporations in computer hardware reach across national borders. International sales normally account for a large percentage of most hardware companies' bottom lines, and India, Japan, China, and other Asian locations are hotbeds of hardware manufacture and design.

Trends

Smaller and Smaller
As advancing technology makes it cost-effective to make more complex chips in increasingly compact sizes, computer hardware makers can bring smaller and smaller devices to market. Think flat computer display screens. Think ever-thinner, ever-lighter laptop computers. And so on.

New Gaming Platforms
The big three in gaming hardware—Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo—all either have recently launched their latest-generation gaming consoles or are planning their imminent release. This situation comes around every five years or so. The new consoles feature high-def graphics, speedy performance, and enhanced audio. Microsoft's Xbox 360, which was launched late in 2005, is at press time the most advanced console on the market. Sony's PS3 console, due out later in 2006 or early in 2007, is projected to be technically more advanced than the Xbox 360, but will cost significantly more. Nintendo's Wii console, also due out later in 2006, is so far taking a back seat to the Sony and Microsoft console offerings in terms of marketplace buzz.

Convergence
Is it a DVD player? A stereo system? A photo scrapbook? A film editing station? A telephone? No, it's today's PC or laptop. These days, personal computers are able to do more and more different things. This means plenty of work for computer hardware professionals, as they make and market hardware products with new and varied capabilities. On the other hand, it also means new sources of competition—such as telecom companies making newfangled cell phones that allow users to watch videos and surf the Internet, and consumer electronics companies making personal entertainment systems and the likes.

Outsourcing
In the hardware world as elsewhere in business, an increasing number of manufacturers are outsourcing product and component development and manufacturing overseas. Some companies are only doing top-level design in the United States, leaving production and more basic design tasks to cheaper labor in the Philippines, China, and elsewhere. What this means is that product managers and project heads may have to travel a lot more than in previous generations; it also means that many North America-based jobs are being lost. Increasingly, the task of American PC companies is to be expert in marketing and distribution while simply outsourcing manufacturing and portions of the design work. Still, observers point out that there should continue to be plenty of jobs in this sector in the U.S. for techies with top-notch skills.

Consolidation
Related to outsourcing and commodification, consolidation of the industry makes sense as computers become familiar products that require fewer very different design and manufacturing approaches. Let a few giant companies manufacture more units at lower cost while sharing marketing and distribution costs across a larger organization. Hewlett-Packard came home with Compaq for billions, and rumor has it that Gateway is a prime takeover target.

Linux
This cheap, open-source operating system software (read: Linux code is available for free on the Web) is moving into the mainstream. Pushed by the desire to lower costs, companies of many stripes have taken a new interest in Linux instead of more expensive operating systems such as Windows or Unix. At the same time, Intel has begun optimizing its chips for Linux in addition to Windows. The result: Hardware manufacturers such as IBM, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard have begun optimizing their PC and server products for Linux.

How It Breaks Down

For job seekers, one way to segment the industry is by the type of computer hardware the company makes. Other differentiating factors include industry and application focus and sales-and-distribution methodology: mail order, Internet, or retail.

PCs (Desktop and Laptop)
The PC market is perhaps the most visible segment of the high-tech hardware market, with computers becoming more and more common at work, home, labs, and school. Established players here include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple, which make desktop and portable computers, many of which are powerful enough to replace high-end specialized workstations and to use for 3-D rendering, molecular modeling, computer-aided design (CAD), and video editing. Portable computers represent a growing overall share of the personal computer market.

Peripherals
A peripheral is usually understood to be an external product added to a computer, such as a new mouse, speakers, or memory stick (think manufacturers like Kensington, Logitech, and KeyTronic), all the way up to monitors, scanners, and printers. However, a peripheral can also be something added into a computer, such as a 3-D video card or an internal modem.

Servers
There are many types of servers—those big boxes that, among other things, are the glue that holds the Internet together. In addition to Web servers, which pass back and forth all of the HTML and image files that end up on your screen, there are local area network (LAN) servers, wide area network (WAN) servers, file servers, mail servers, database servers, and more. Every time two computers (termed "clients" in this context) connect over a network, a server is involved.

Job Prospects

Opportunities in the computer hardware industry exist not only for engineers, computer scientists, and others with technical skills, but also for people with financial, marketing, sales, and product management backgrounds. Job seekers with technical expertise and a computer science degree attract the most opportunities and the sweetest compensation packages, whether they work as engineers, product managers, or in marketing. Opportunities in fields such as sales, customer support, and technical writing go to individuals with good people skills, a strong customer-service bias, and the ability to communicate complex ideas in plain English, respectively. If any of these sounds like you, give computer hardware a close look—but be prepared to get up to speed on the technical side.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the growth in the United States in jobs in this sector will drop between 2004 and 2014, compared to an increase in jobs overall of about 14 percent. You can thank the increasing automation of manufacturing processes, as well as the trend toward moving computer hardware-production jobs overseas, for the bleak outlook. Still, this is a big, growing industry, and there will always be business and techie jobs available in this sector for people at the top of their game.