Hard Drive shortages keep bite tech industry

Nvidia diminished its income prediction Wednesday for the 1 / 4 ending Jan. 29, stating the effect of the challenging generate (HDD) scarcity due to the Thailand fulfills on its popular GPU business.

Competitors Apple and Advanced Micro Devices also reported that they were suffering from the fulfills, as HDD manufacturers like Traditional european Electronic start to bring their functions normal again in Thailand.

Research firm Gartner however cautioned recently that the major effect of the HDD scarcity after the fulfills will be felt in the first half of this season, and even potentially proceed through the season. The scarcity had a limited effect on 4th 1 / 4 PC deliveries and costs, but PC shipping growth could be temporarily influenced during 2012, it said.

Western Electronic, which saw its producers in Thailand bombarded in the fulfills, said on Monday that it desires its challenging generate generation capacity to be renewed to pre-flood levels only by the third 1 / 4 of this season.

The challenging drive generate scarcity due to the racing in Thailand had more effect on the popular GPU (graphics processing unit) section than anticipated, Nvidia said. Revenue for the company’s economical 4th 1 / 4 is now expected to be $950 thousand, plus or without 1 %, compared with original expectations of $1.0 billion, plus or without 2 %, provided on Nov. 10, it said. Shipments by some PC creators were reduced, and some were not able to include a GPU in their systems because of the higher costs of challenging hard drive pushes, Nvidia said.

Revenue from AMD’s design section lowered 10 % to $382 thousand in the 1 / 4 finished Dec. 31, the organization said on Wednesday. The decline was partly due to the hard-drive scarcity, it said.

Western Electronic said it has continued to slam HDD generation in Thailand and on Sunday started again slider generation which had been hanging since Oct. 10.

The organization said, while stating its results for the 1 / 4 finished Dec. 30, that it had suffered charges and expenses of $199 thousand related to the racing during the 1 / 4. The organization shipped 28.5 thousand pushes in the 1 / 4, in contrast to 57.8 thousand in the previous 1 / 4.

The scarcity of HDDs has influenced Apple as well. The shortages did not impact PC sales as computer creators tried to clear out existing inventory, but there was a reduction in orders for new micro-processors, which hurt Apple, the organization said recently during its fourth-quarter earnings call. The scarcity of challenging hard drive pushes will keep impact the organization in its first economical 1 / 4, it said.