Posted 11/19/09 at 07:06:30 AM by Paul Lilly

Some CIOs worry that underpaid IT pros may be a flight risk once the economy rebounds. That's because IT workers have been asked to work more for less money, while also watching their benefits be taken away, and that's not something they'll soon forget once job opportunities open up elsewhere, suggests a new survey.

Robert Half Technologies pinged 1,400 CIOs and found that 43 percent of them plan to make retaining existing workers their top staffing priority in 2010.

"Employers need to focus on preventing burnout and keeping their best people engaged at work. This may be a challenge, given that staffing cuts and the reduction or elimination of benefits have left many employees feeling overworked and undervalued," said Dave Willmer, executive director at Robert Half Technology, in a statement.

But it's not all gloom and doom for CIOs. To prevent a mass exodus among IT staff, Robert Half Technology suggests that IT employers begin implementing training and career development programs. The firm also recommends communicating regularly with staff and encouraging team-building activities that promote a balance between work and life.

"Companies may have to work at 're-selling' themselves to existing employees in much the same way the would when promoting themselves to prospective hires," Willmer said.

But will it be enough?

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Posted 11/05/09 at 08:21:47 PM by Ryan Whitwam

The recession may or may not be over for the general public, but as far as D-Link is concerned, the high times are here again. The maker of network solutions has posted solid growth in the third quarter of the year. Net profits were up to $7.98 million in Q3 2009. This is an abrupt turnaround after the first half of the year when the company actually lost several million.

A whopping 54% of D-Link’s profits were from the Asia Pacific and emerging markets. Management expects that to rise over 60% in the next few quarters. D-Link expects growth to continue in the fourth quarter, but not at an increased rate over the third quarter.

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Posted 11/02/09 at 09:10:00 PM by Ryan Whitwam

It’s no secret that chip sales have been hurting in this economy. In fact, semiconductor sales fell last year for this first time since the tech bubble burst in 2001. However, the newest numbers out seem to show a reasonable rebound. Global chip sales in Q3 rose 19.7% over Q2 to 61.9 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The bad news is that sales were still over 10% lower than Q3 last year.

To a degree, this sort of increase is expected as demand ramps up approaching the holidays, but SIA president, George Scalise, has called the results “above expectations”. He pointed out that sales of PCs and cell phones have been running ahead of predictions. These devices are the largest consumers of semiconductors.

Positive signs continue to accumulate for the chip market. In addition to the just released numbers, previous values indicate that September actually saw a year-over-year gain of 7.8% in American sales. SIA is raising their projections for total 2009 sales. Is this a premature decision, or not?  We’ll find out in a few months.

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Posted 09/08/09 at 07:27:04 PM by Ryan Whitwam

The recession may be coming to an end, but desktop PC sales may never get back to where they were, according to Ray Chen of Compal Electronics.  The company expects to see a 20 percent and 10 percent rise in PC shipments, in the third and fourth quarters respectively.  Notebook sales remained strong throughout the recession.  This may mean that notebook sales will only continue to grow, as desktop sales remain comparatively stagnant.

Even Apple, whose sales have remained strong, saw a 20 percent decline in desktop sales volume.  Some questions remain as businesses may have been holding off on new PC orders during the recession.  The corporate world has traditionally chosen desktops over laptops.  However, Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for iSuppli, contends that businesses will choose mobility over performance as they place new orders.

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Posted 08/30/09 at 10:29:00 AM by Justin Kerr

Stronger than expected demand for microprocessors has prompted Intel to raise its Q3 forecast from $8.1 billion to $9.2 billion, and the good news is they aren’t the only ones predicting better times ahead. Both HP and Dell are forecasting Q3 revenues to rise, though this news comes hot on the heels of disappointing year to date earnings.

On Thursday, Dell reported a 23 percent drop in Q2 profit, but still managed to beat the street estimates. CEO Michael Dell claims, “if current demand trends continue, we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half”. Rival Hewlett-Packard reported a similarly depressing drop in profit of 19 percent for the first half of the year, but is also expecting the trend to reverse itself soon.

The PC Industry is expected to benefit from the economic stimulus package in China, as well as what appears to be the start of an economic recovery in the U.S. Windows 7 is also expected to help move PCs in the consumer sector, but businesses will likely put off upgrading for at least a year or more.

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Posted 08/19/09 at 09:26:04 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Many financial savants grabbed their crystal balls and went into hiding when the economy went into freefall. Now that there are signs of recovery, they are again gazing into their crystal balls with renewed hope. According to many of them, including IMF’s chief economist Olivier Blanchard, the recession is behind us.

Tech honchos now believe that the IT industry would lead the recovery. According to a survey conducted by KPMG, two thirds of the 130 CEOs that were surveyed believe the IT industry would recover quicker than the US economy. Furthermore, a vast majority of CEOs feel 2010 would bring glad tidings for their industry. One can expect lesser job cuts in the near future as more than two thirds of tech bosses are not too keen on cost cutting.

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Posted 08/15/09 at 05:18:05 PM by Justin Kerr

Last month we reported on the rather bleak fortunes of the gaming industry, and it appears as though the trend that was identified in June has carried over to July. According to the NPD Group, July marks the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year video-game sales declines. Not only is the gaming industry no longer considered recession proof, but it managed to shed a staggering 29 percent compared to the same period last year. Sales of software and hardware for July 2009 were approximately $848.9 million, down from $1.1 billion in 2008.

NPD blames the summer tailspin on lackluster new game releases, and fewer hardware purchases. The industry on a whole is expected to pick up some steam in the traditionally strong Q4 period with several high profile launches expected. "This isn't the best time of year for video-game sales. In a down economy it makes it all that tougher said Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. "Of course, there's nothing that's ultimately going to be recession-proof if the recession goes on long enough."

“Video games have large amounts of entertainment value beyond short-term enjoyment," Gartenberg said. "That's typically one of the reasons video games have done well." Would you agree?

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Posted 06/23/09 at 08:00:20 AM by Paul Lilly

While netbooks continue to put on a strong showing, worldwide PC shipments fell by the "largest historic rate" since iSuppli has been tracking the market. Shipments only totaled 66.5 million in the first quarter of 2009, an 8.1 percent backslide from the 72.3 million shipped one year ago, and 14.4 percent less than the 77.6 million shipped in Q4 2008.

"The worldwide recession sparked by the credit crisis slammed PC shipments for the second quarter in succession during the first three months of 2009," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research at iSuppli. "The first quarter performance of the worldwide PC market was worse than iSuppli had expected in its prior forecast, which called for a 4 percent decline in shipments compared to the same period in 2008."

Disappointing desktop sales were largely responsible for decline, which saw a drop in shipments by 23 percent. Meanwhile, notebooks actually grew 10 percent compared to the same period one year ago.

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