Cash-strapped consumers have been slow to buy personal computers in the recession. But with the launch of Microsoft Corp.’s new Windows 7 operating system Thursday, PC makers are aiming to reverse that trend–and then some.
SanDisk shares are coming under pressure this morning after Needham analyst Y. Edwin Mok cut his rating on the stock to Under Perform from Hold.
Mok writes in a research note that the downgrade reflects “early signs of weakness in the NAND flash memory sector that we believe will lead to lower prices.”
Toshiba expects the LCD television market to grow five percent in 2009, the company said this morning at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Scott Ramirez, VP for TV Marketing at Toshiba, also said that he expects there will be “no real volume” this year in televisions priced above $2,500. He notes that the average 52-inch LCD TV in November sold for $1,948. He expects no significant sales of televisions above 55 inches.
Toshiba is suspending flash memory production at two of its plants, but only for nine days. The company denies plans to shut down the plants completely, though it plans to speed up restructuring at its money-losing chip operations.
In October, Samsung withdrew a bid to acquire SanDisk. Some speculated that Toshiba would swoop in and rescue the company, but it didn’t happen. Today, SanDisk shares rallied due to the same rumors about Toshiba–analysts noted that Toshiba could no more afford the acquisition now than it could in in the fall.
Seagate CEO Bill Watkins is feeling pretty good about the hard disk market. His Asian competitors–mostly Toshiba, Fujitsu and Samsung–are in bad shape, he says, and may have to work together in order to survive. External drive sales are doing well, but the solid-state drive market isn’t gaining the traction that was predicted. Could end up being good news for Seagate.
In case you happen to think that Toshiba is going to outbid Samsung for SanDisk (SNDK), you ought to take note of the company’s currently grim view of the NAND flash memory market.
In fact, as Bloomberg reports, Toshiba today cut its full-year net income forecast for the March 31, 2009, fiscal year by 46 percent to 70 billion yen, which would be a four-year low.
Even if you don’t care one bit–and this probably describes the vast majority of Americans–you have probably heard by now that a Great Format War has been fought, and apparently won. The HD-DVD format for DVDs, backed by Toshiba, has lost out to Sony’s Blu-ray format. To be sure, there are some caveats. Computerworld’s Lucas Mearian writes that Blu-ray’s victory may not be remotely as meaningful as it seems. Having recently spent a cold, rainy, but thrilling afternoon walking the Freedom Trail in Boston, I would put it this way: The Blu-ray victory may end up being as expensive, and as predictive of ultimate victory, as was the British victory of Bunker Hill. So what are we to make of this format skirmish? We gathered up a group of smart people who think about such things and asked them the following: Is the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray really over? What can we learn from it?
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