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Computer Hardware
Career Overview

Industry Overview

Raise your hand if you still use a typewriter. Didn't think so. Despite the occasional slump in computer sales, computers are here to stay.

Computer hardware, as we use the term, means central processing units (CPUs), including memory and storageóin other words, the machine on which you run an operating system and application software and to which you attach peripherals (keyboards, mouses, printers, etc.).

Computer hardware and software are useless without each other. But working together they store, modify, and exchange data: words, pictures, and numbersóeverything from correspondence to news photos, from drawings of jet aircraft to shipping manifests, from news releases to financial reports, from census statistics to stock quotes, from maps to e-mail.

The competition among computer hardware companies is particularly intense. On the one hand, in the traditional-PC market, companiesí products have largely become commodified, with constant downward price pressure (and narrowing profit margins) being the result. On the other hand, there are the markets for innovative new products, like tablet PCs, that are not yet commodified. Here, the race is to develop products at breakneck speed so you can be first to market. And if a company falters, it instantly becomes a target for larger companies looking to acquire new businesses. No doubt about it: Computer hardware is a cutthroat business.

There are definite geographic concentrations in the hardware industry despite its worldwide reach. It's often noted that high-tech companies are usually located near colleges and universities, and there's a good deal of truth to that, as many companies come out of research done at such institutions. Silicon Valley is near San Jose State, the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University. Route 128 is near the educational mecca of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Research Triangle in North Carolina and the area around Austin, Texas, are also good examples. Still, there are other places within North America where you'll find major companies; for example, Gateway is in North Dakota.

Most major corporations in computer hardware reach across national borders. International sales normally account for a large percentage of most hardware companies' bottom lines, and India, Japan, China, and Ireland are hotbeds of hardware manufacturing.

After the tech bust of the early 2000s, the demand for computers of all flavors, from servers to PCs, evaporated as companies around the world found themselves with too much computer hardware on their hands and cash-strapped consumers became reluctant to buy or upgrade PCs. But things now seem to be turning around. In the third quarter of 2003, PC shipments were up 15.7 percentóthe biggest increase since 2000. The job market in tech probably wonít ever again be as good as it was in the 1990s, but at least you can finally find open tech jobs again.

Outsourcing
In the hardware world, an increasing number of manufacturers are outsourcing product and component development and manufacturing overseas. Some companies are only doing top-level design in the United States, leaving production and more basic design tasks to cheaper labor in the Philippines, China, and elsewhere. What this means is that product managers and project heads may have to travel a lot more than in previous generations; it also means that many North America-based jobs are being lost.

Linux
This cheap, open-source operating software (read: Linux code is available for free on the Web) is moving into the mainstream. Pushed by the desire to lower costs, companies of many stripes have taken a new interest in Linux instead of more expensive operating systems such as Windows or Unix. At the same time, Intel has begun optimizing its chips for Linux in addition to Windows. The result: Hardware manufacturers such as IBM, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard have begun optimizing their PC and server products for Linux.

Look for the trend to continue, and for the Windows/Unix oligopoly to lose some of its power over the computer marketplace.

The Death of the PC?
Some experts predict that, in coming years, the PC will become less and less relevant. Instead, people will own smaller, cheaper, more task-specific pieces of hardware that, rather than containing tons of computing power, will work by being hooked into the Web or private networks, where all the computing power will reside. The mantra, these folks insist, will shift from “a computer on every desk” to “a network hook-up in every room.”

Already, we're seeing signs that this may indeed be the future of computer hardware. Some software applications are available online on a rental basis. Online gaming is growing like gangbusters. And products like PDAs and cell phones are looking more and more like specialized mini-PCs, with wireless Internet access and networking capabilities. What this means is that, to survive, computer hardware companies may eventually have to shift their focus from making and selling PCs to making and selling innovative products that we canít even envision yet.

For job seekers, one way to segment the industry is by the type of computer hardware the company makes. Other differentiating factors include industry and application focus and sales-and-distribution methodology: mail order, Internet, or retail.

Workstations (Desktop and Laptop)
This is perhaps the most publicly visible segment of the high-tech hardware market, with computers becoming more and more common at work, home, labs, and school. Established players here include Dell, Gateway, and Apple, which make desktop and portable computers, and companies such as Sun and SGI, which make powerful specialized workstations used in 3D rendering, molecular modeling, computer-aided design (CAD), and video editing. Portable computers represent a growing overall share of the personal computer market.

Peripherals
A peripheral is usually understood to be an external product added to a computer, such as a new mouse, speakers, CD-RW burners, and the like (check Kensington, Logitech, KeyTronic, etc.), all the way up to monitors, scanners, and printers. However, a peripheral can also be something added into a computer, such as a 3-D video card or an internal modem.

Servers
There are many types of serversóthose big boxes that, among other things, are the glue that holds the Internet together. In addition to Web servers, which pass back and forth all of the HTML and image files that end up on your screen, there are local area network (LAN) servers, wide area network (WAN), file servers, mail servers, database servers, and more. Every time two computers (termed in this context as "clients") connect over a network, a server is involved.

In the last few years, the job market has been tight to an almost unprecedented degree. However, people moving from job to job is still a fairly common occurrence, and this results in regular turnover and openings. As always, keep your eyes open.

Opportunities in the computer hardware industry are not only for engineers and others with technical skills, but also for people with financial, marketing, sales, and product management backgrounds. Job seekers with technical expertise and a computer science degree attract the most opportunities and the sweetest compensation packages, whether they work as engineers, product managers, or in marketing. Opportunities in fields such as sales, customer support, and technical writing go to individuals with good people skills, a strong customer-service bias, and the ability to communicate complex ideas in plain English. If that sounds like you, give computer hardware a close lookóbut be prepared to get up to speed on the technical side of the hardware.

High-tech companies are generally more active and open in regard to their job openings. Their own websites are valuable resources as to vacancies and the corporations usually maintain a high recruiting presence at colleges and universities. Don't overlook internshipsóin addition to providing training, companies often hire from within their internee pool. Even if you're not interested in working for the Megacorp that is offering a summer program, what you learn there adds to your value in the eyes of smaller companies.

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