All Other General Purpose Machinery Manufacturing in the US

When the chips are down.

Computer and peripheral hardware is costly to manufacture. The industry is exploring cost saving measures to keep escalating costs of raw materials down. Savvy manufactures are negotiating with good and reliable suppliers, outsourcing production offshore to utilize cheaper labor, and expanding into the higher profit margin markets of IT services and software. Adjunct services and products such as broadband and wireless internet access, miniaturization and portable computers, new applications and a plethora of new software will all help buoy demand for computer hardware.

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in: a) manufacturing and/or assembling electronic computers, such as mainframes, personal computers, workstations, laptops, and computer servers. Computers can be analog, digital, or hybrid. The manufacture of computers includes the assembly or integration of processors, co-processors, memory, storage, and input/output devices into a user-programmable final product. b) manufacturing computer storage devices that allow the storage and retrieval of data from a phase change, magnetic, optical, or magnetic/optical media. Examples of products made by these establishments are CD-ROM drives, floppy disk drives, hard disk drives, and tape storage and backup units. c) manufacturing computer terminals, which are input/output devices that connect with a central computer for processing. d) manufacturing computer peripheral equipment (except storage devices and computer terminals). This report covers the scope, size, disposition and growth of the industry including the key sensitivities and success factors. Also included are three year industry forecasts, growth rates and an analysis of the industry key players and their market shares.