In following the hard drive industry these days, leaders of those companies (Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi) seem to think that there will always be a place for the standard spinning hard drive in most desktop computers, servers and laptop systems. If this statement were true in 2004, is it still true today? Sure -- but the tide is changing, albeit slowly.Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) needs fast access times, less power consumption and no moving parts. The speed and moving parts differences are huge. Although SSD capacities (32 Gigabyte for now) are not near the capacity of a standard 80 or 120 Gigabyte traditional hard drives, there are quite a few advantages.
One is not cost, though, as these smallish 32 Gigabyte drives run off the shelf for $350 (Dell charges $549). But, the signal Dell is giving here is that some customers may prefer these drives, regardless of cost. With more and more laptop computers being sold as "desktop replacements," the only thing not keeping up is the traditional hard drive.
Is Dell poised to one-up the competition with newer (and faster) laptop computer storage devices? Heck, it needs something to kick start sales again after being pummeled by Hewlett-Packard recently. Perhaps this is part of the solution. Now, if Dell can only justify the higher prices of its systems that contain these SSDs, the company may be onto something, eh? Its stock price needs a lift, and to get there, so do its sales.
Platters spinning at 5,400 RPM don't cut the mustard with newer dual-core computer processors and fast RAM. Customers demand more, and if traditional hard drives are lagging, SSD will enter the picture quite rapidly, As it does, prices will fall and companies like Seagate and Western Digital may find themselves a bit surprised.
Why is gold making a new high, trading at $1,118.00 per ounce?
Chasing Value: Ten stocks for 2010 -- Part 1 
Closing Bell: A six-day rally (AIG, REGN, M, MOT, PALM, RIMM)
