Computer Hardware

Computer Hardware means all those devices that make up the various components of a computer. All the computer parts that one can touch and see, is termed as the computer hardware. Also associated as peripheral devices. Computer hardware is an integral part embedded in all modern day automobiles, microwave ovens, electrocardiograph machines, compact disc players, and other devices.

Computer Hardware Products
Computer Hardware can be broadly catagorized as the following -

• Networking hardware- Networking hardware refers to equipments that are used to interconnect two or more computer networks for sharing resources and data. Some of the common examples are Bridges & Routers, Hub & Switches, Modems, Network Adapters, Network Cables, Network Cards, Network Devices
• Storage Hardware- Among the computer industry, storage hardware are those kind of hardwares that performs the function of storing data. It caters to a wide array of devices from USB drives to large internal hard drives. It performs the task of keeping the computer hardware information, intact.
• Memory Selectors- Memory selectors form important computer hardware components. They are generally output devices that are used to store data before being transferred to another device. USB ports and media readers like Cameras, Laptops, MP3 Players, PDAs are a few example of memory selectors.
• Input Devices- Any computer peripheral that controls the data and sends information to an information processing system (in this case computers) is termed as input device. Keyboard, Mouse, Bar Code Readers, Game Controllers, Scanners are few examples of input devices available in the computer hardware market.
• Output Devices- An output device is any piece of computer hardware equipment used to communicate the results of data processing carried out by an information processing system (such as a computer) to the outside world. Monitors, Printers, Projectors, Sound Cards, Video Cards, Speakers, Headphones are some of the examples of output devices.
• System Hardware- The Computer System Hardware category groups classes together all the equipments that represent hardware. Examples include Desktop & Servers, Motherboards, System & Power Cables, UPS & Power Devices.

Major Markets for Computer Hardware
Going by the survey, the markets of UK are the most suited for wholesale computer hardware, with a growth of 5.6% since 2003. Since then it has further started experiencing more projects in terms of application and infrastructure, thus assisting the computer hardware market of Europe to enter a mature stage. The mass of UK business comprise of small and medium scale enterprise that are a rage among the major vendors in order to generate required volume sales.

Other important player in the computer hardware market is Canada, with a total revenue of $15.5 billion in 2007. The market represents 38% of the total Canadian Information Technology (IT) market. It is expected that over the next three years, hardware industry would grow with an average rate of 3.5% annually, with sales reaching $16 billion by 2010.

The US too is a big fish in the computer hardware industry. It has an annual growth of $136 billion, approximately one third of the world. In US spending on computer systems accounted for 56 percent of this total, followed by networking equipment at 19 percent, peripheral equipment, 16 percent, and storage, 9 percent.

Computer Hardware Industry
The computer hardware industry is one of the fast paced flourishing market in the world. As per surveys, global computer hardware market grew by 5.6% in 2007 to reach a value of $399.8 billion. A major reason for this overall lucrative growth is the sales of computer hardware apart from the PCs that has alone yielded total revenues of $208.2 billion, which is equivalent to 56.7% of the overall market value. It is also being estimated that by 2012, the global computer hardware market is forecast to have a value of $537.3 billion, an increase of 34.4% since 2007.

Common Industry Trends
The computer hardware industry has undergone dynamic changes sine their inception. Current trend in the computer wholesale market is the greening of computer hardware. There has been an increase in the use of reduced instruction-set computing, migration to the UNIX operating system, the development of large software libraries, microprocessor-based smart terminals that allow remote validation of data, speech synthesis and recognition, application generators, fourth-generation languages, computer-aided software engineering, object-oriented technologies, and artificial intelligence. Software development continues to lag behind hardware, and its high cost is offsetting the savings provided by hardware.

E-Waste
Electronic waste better known as e-waste in language of computer information technology, is a kind of waste that consists of any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic device. It has been proved that various components of such equipment are considered toxic and are not biodegradable, therefore unhealthy for the environment. Till date, the governments of all the countries have taken significant measures to reduce the amount of e-waste by finding various ways to green the computer hardware.

Green Computer Hardware
The rise in the level of e waste has sent alarming signals of health hazards all across the world. To combat this, the government as well as independent environment councils have come up with various measures to check electronic waste and install green hardware. Various industrial policies have been implemented. Recycling of used or old parts of computers is being encouraged. Various other measures like power saving and using LCD instead of CRT models are being encouraged among the common people.



Green Computer Hardware Council
Green computer hardware councils are the trade organization that promotes green computing ie practice of using computing resources efficiently. The goals are to reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste.

Some of the top computer hardware councils are:

• Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
  EPEAT is an environmental procurement tool designed to help institutional purchasers in the public and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop personal computers, notebook personal computers and personal computer monitors ...
• Green Computing Impact Organization, Inc. (GCIO)
  Non-profit membership organization to assist computing with green computing migrations, free audits, information and events.
• Moab Green Computing
  Helps your organization achieve its green-computing objectives now and in the future. With Moab's wide array of monitoring, reporting, managing, ...
• Europa - The European Union On-Line
  The legislation provides for the creation of collection schemes where consumers return their used e-waste free of charge. The objective of these schemes is to increase the recycling and/or re-use of such products.