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By Sara Jameson

Growth in Consumer Electronic Devices and Mobile Devices connecting to the web and utilizing the cloud means strong growth for various manufacturers and suppliers of products supporting the build out of the cloud.

Data Center Growth and the Cloud Build out.

On a recent call with analysts and journalists (April 19th), Intel CEO Paul Otellini said the shift of critical business applications to the cloud drove IT business spending leading to record first quarter numbers for Intel.  This build out of the cloud drove demand for high-end servers, storage and networking products for larger centralized data centers similar to the announcement of  a new green data center.

Intel had a record first quarter strong in 2011, thanks in large part to continued strong enterprise sales despite a softening in consumer markets in the United States and Western Europe. First quarter revenue came in at $12.9 billion—up 25 percent over the same period in 2010—with net income hitting $3.3 billion, a 34 percent jump.

Intel continued its strong performance from the end of 2010, as revenue and net income were up 12 percent and 3 percent, respectively, compared with fourth-quarter 2010 results.  One could expect similar results for AMD when  they announce their first quarter 2011 earnings - Q1 2011 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Conference Call Thursday, April 21, 2011.

Intel, Micron and AMD are taking advantage of the explosion of devices that can connect to the Internet.  In fact, when looking at the semiconductor market as a whole, the build out of the cloud should have a very real impact on the following companies -  Intel, Micron , Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, SanDisk, LSI, Altera, Xilinx - all for the same reason - a surge in demand for their product as the cloud matures.

"We not only participate through selling our products into these device categories, but we also profit from the wide array of products that we sell in the build out of the data center required to serve all of these devices," Otellini said.

Why Mobile Cloud Computing?

We in the west can sometimes forget that not everyone owns a smartphone. There are still a large number of markets worldwide where the dominant phone is a feature phone. While it's true that smartphones will grow in percentage and feature phones will become more sophisticated in time, these lower-end phones are not going away anytime soon. And it's their very existence which will help drive the mobile cloud computing trend.

Not only is there a broader audience using feature phones in the world, there are also more web developers capable of building mobile web applications than there are developers for any other type of mobile device. Those factors, combined with the fact that feature phones themselves are becoming more capable with smarter built-in web browsers (and more alternative browsers available for download), will have an impact on mobile cloud computing's growth.

These two forces (Data Center Build outs and Mobile Cloud Computing) will spur growth of the companies that are supplying product to the cloud.  Mobile Cloud computing is a disruptive force in technology and will help shape the future of technology suppliers and developers.

Published by myITview.com

Comments (2)

	1. 04-22-2011 11:38
	While I tend to agree with this article's observations the cloud will yield a big return to companies supplying the cloud with equipment and services. Afterall, it stands to reason growth will be achieved with the onset of more devices hooking into the cloud and more applications coming from the cloud.     Still, I think in light of the news of the Amazon shut down of services to several large and small companies yesterday, more consideration has to be given to what will be housed in the cloud and how companies with data sensitve information will go about utilizing the cloud moving forward. Registered

John Sane

	2. 04-22-2011 17:32
	Just listening in on the AMD call shows Sara to be right about her pridiction for AMD's quarter past. For a link to that call see: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=74093&p=irol-eventDetails&EventId=3915520     I would suspect we'll see much more of this kind of earnings calls from the folks Sara outlines. Interesting that the server market was softer than they forecast. Revenue is projected flat to down for the next quarter however. They are still looking for a new CEO so obviously they are in transition. It was still a strong earnings call for them. And like Intel they are projecting growth for the PC market and growth in the graphic / video marketplace. They did say that the Corporate market would stronger for them since consumer products are being adopted into enterprise platforms. Registered

Sonny Garrowitz

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