Latest news with #JiteshUbrani
Egypt Independent
a day ago
- Business
- Egypt Independent
Google, Meta and Snap think this tech is the next big thing
New York CNN — Silicon Valley thinks it's finally found the next big thing in tech: smart glasses – the same thing Google tried (and failed at) more than a decade ago. But Google Glass may simply have been ahead of its time. Now tech companies believe technology has finally caught up, thanks in part to artificial intelligence—and they're going all-in on truly 'smart' glasses that can see and answer questions about the world around you. The latest example: Snap announced this past week it's building AI-equipped eyewear to be released in 2026. The renewed buzz around smart glasses is likely the combination of two trends: a realization that smartphones are no longer exciting enough to entice users to upgrade often and a desire to capitalize on AI by building new hardware around it. That's why, although smart glasses aren't entirely new, advancements in AI could make them far more useful than the first time around. Emerging AI models can process images, video and speech simultaneously, answer complicated requests and respond conversationally. And that could make smart glasses finally worth wearing. 'AI is making these devices a lot easier to use, and it's also introducing new ways people can use them,' said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager covering wearable devices for market research firm The International Data Corporation. Meet the new class of smart glasses Google, Snap, Meta and Amazon have previously released glasses with cameras, speakers and voice assistants. But the Google Glass of a decade ago never caught on. The screen was tiny, the battery life was short and the 'glasses' themselves were expensive and unfashionable. More modern glasses like Amazon's Echo Frames, Meta's original Ray-Ban Stories and early versions of Snap's Spectacles made it easier to listen to music or take photos hands-free. Yet these still didn't do anything you couldn't already do with a smartphone. This newer crop of smart glasses is far more sophisticated. For example, when I tried prototype glasses based on Google's software last year, I asked Google's Gemini assistant to provide cocktail ideas based on liquor bottles I had been looking at on a shelf. The glasses will also remember what you've seen and answer questions based on that: During its I/O developers conference in May, a Google employee asked Gemini for the name of a coffee shop printed on a cup she has looked at earlier. With the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, users can perform tasks like asking whether a pepper they're looking at in a grocery store is spicy or translate conversations between languages in real time. Two million pairs have been sold since their 2023 debut, Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica said in February. Attendees wear Google Glass while posing for a group photo during the Google I/O developer conference on May 17, 2013 in San Francisco, California.'There's been several years of various failed attempts,' said Andrew Zignani, senior research director of ABI Research's Strategic Technologies team. 'But there's finally now some good concepts of what's working.' And market research indicates the interest will be there this time. The smart glasses market is estimated to grow from 3.3 million units shipped in 2024 to nearly 13 million by 2026, according to ABI Research. The International Data Corporation projects the market for smart glasses like those made by Meta will grow from 8.8 in 2025 to nearly 14 million in 2026. What's coming next Snap didn't reveal many details about its forthcoming 'Specs' glasses but did say they will 'understand the world around you. 'The tiny smartphone limited our imagination,' Snap wrote in a blog post announcing the glasses. 'It forced us to look down at a screen, instead of up at the world.' Apple is also said to be working on smart glasses to be released next year that would compete directly with Meta's, according to Bloomberg. Amazon's head of devices and services Panos Panay also didn't rule out the possibility of camera-equipped Alexa glasses similar to those offered by Meta in a February CNN interview. 'But I think you can imagine, there's going to be a whole slew of AI devices that are coming,' he said in February. Demonstration of prototypes of glasses that can display information in the user's field of vision at the Google I/O developer conference on May 20 in Mountain View, CA. Andrej Sokolow/picture-alliance/dpa/AP AI assistant apps, like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Search and Gemini apps, are already laying the foundation for smart glasses by using your phone's camera to answer questions about your surroundings. OpenAI is putting its tech in everything from a mysterious new gadget co-designed by Apple veteran Jony Ive to future Mattel toys. Google said last month that it would bring more camera use to its search app, a sign that it sees this technology as being key to the way people find information in the future. Apple this past week announced updates to its Visual Intelligence tool that let users ask questions about content on their iPhone's screen, in addition to their surroundings, by using its camera. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently reiterated his belief that smart glasses could become critical to how people use technology during testimony in a federal antitrust case. 'A big bet that we have at the company is that a lot of the way that people interact with content in the future is going to be increasingly through different AI mediums, and eventually through smart glasses and holograms,' he said in April. Do people actually want smart glasses? Still, tech giants need to get regular people to buy in. This includes potential privacy concerns, which played a big role in Google Glass' demise. Recording video with camera-equipped glasses is more subtle than holding up your phone, although Meta and Google's glasses have a light on the front to let other people know when a wearer is capturing content. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be convincing consumers that they need yet another tech device in their life, particularly those who don't need prescription glasses. The products need to be worth wearing on people's faces all day. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion AR glasses at the Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on September 25, 2024. Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters And these devices likely won't come cheap. Meta's Ray-Bans usually cost around $300, roughly the price of a smartwatch. While that's not nearly as expensive as the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro headset, it still may be a tough sell as people spend less on ancillary tech products. Global smartwatch shipments fell for the first time in March, according to Counterpoint Research, perhaps a sign that customers aren't spending as much on devices they may not view as essential. Yet tech firms are willing to make that bet to avoid missing out on what could be the next blockbuster tech product. 'Many in the industry believe that the smartphone will eventually be replaced by glasses or something similar to it,' said Ubrani the IDC analyst. 'It's not going to happen today. It's going to happen many years from now, and all these companies want to make sure that they're not going to miss out on that change.'
WIRED
24-04-2025
- Business
- WIRED
The Apple Watch Turns 10. Here's How Far It's Come
Apr 24, 2025 10:02 AM When the Apple Watch launched, it was unclear if smartwatches would pan out. Ten years later, Apple has a $100-billion hit that reshaped the watch industry and ushered in a new age of fitness tracking. Photograph: Apple; Getty Images April 24, 2025, marks 10 years since the Apple Watch first went on sale. It was actually announced during a special event on September 9, 2014, but only became available to buy over seven months later, on April 24, 2015. While it seems hard now to recall a time when the Apple Watch, or something similar, did not exist, the market hasn't always been so obvious. It was only 10 years ago that we were still wondering if Pebble would actually pan out, and all anyone wanted a Fitbit for was to get in their 10,000 steps (an entirely arbitrary number, but I digress). Customers in Sydney, Australia, queueing for a look at the first Apple Watch in April 2015. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images When it debuted, the first Apple Watch was glitchy and expensive. Battery life sucked. Many publications, including mine, spent significant time and space wondering why anyone even wanted a smartwatch. Today, it is an Apple success story. 'Since 2015 til the end of 2024, we estimate that 281.2 million Apple watches have been shipped,' Jitesh Ubrani, a device research manager at IDC tells WIRED. That's at an estimated value of $127 billion. No wonder it has spawned a flotilla of imitators. However, on its tenth anniversary (or perhaps more appropriately its aluminum anniversary), the Apple Watch Series 10 faces a tumultuous global market. Even before the Trump administration announced tariffs, global smartwatch sales were slumping. As innovation slows (or is blocked in patent disputes), people are now holding onto their Apple devices for longer, while newer smartwatches, such as the Galaxy Watch are also coming for Apple's lunch. Sleeping Beauty Check Reddit's r/AppleWatch and you'll find people who still own—and use—the original Series 0. It's a reminder that Apple's Jony Ive poured years of work into a tiny design that was originally intended to be a piece of jewelry, before reportedly clashing with executives over what the watch's eventual function would be. Potential buyers look at the various options offered by the first Apple Watch. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Initial unfortunate nomenclature aside—Tim Cook casually called it 'the iWatch', before that horrible name was kiboshed due to patent squabbles—it was beguiling, and Ive had his wish. Walking into an Apple Store and picking out your case and accessories was the closest many might have come to a luxury watch purchasing experience. Because the Watch is not just a simple timepiece—you can change it to suit your needs, or mood. When you buy an Apple Watch, you can also pick or change your bands, from the now-classic Milanese loop to the company's successful collaboration with Hermès. You can change your watch face to suit your outfit, to check if Snoopy has a cute new cartoon for the day, to go sailing, or map your way back off the trail. Those two ingenious buttons on the case's back that let you easily switch out your straps at a whim with no tools are now copied by almost all manufacturers in the watch industry, not just smartwatch manufacturers. 'Apple showed that [the strap] was a critical part of the design language, but also laid down the gauntlet in engineering secure, easy-to-use quick-release systems that didn't require tools. Brands have put a lot of R&D into this,' said Tim Barber, WIRED's watch expert. While the $10,000 Apple Watch was certainly a folly—you still have to update an Apple Watch, even when it's pure gold (except when you no longer can)—the watch itself is to my eyes both beautiful and declaratory: wearing one signifies that you're a serious person who cares about fitness and getting work done. It's the only watch that has ever outsold the entire Swiss watch industry, and actually, Barber notes, in part, reinvigorated the luxury watch industry. The $10,000 Apple Watch Edition launched in 2015 and had an 18K gold case with sapphire crystal glass. Photograph: Apple 'Rather than wipe out mechanical watches, as some thought it would—hence the folly of TAG Heuer, Montblanc and others getting into ultimately inferior smart watches—Apple Watch reinvigorated them as a prestige item specifically apart, and in opposition to, digital culture,' says Barber. 'That undoubtedly benefitted watchmakers. It's almost certainly been a net positive.' Ive and the Apple Watch design team hit upon a key concept when it comes to digital wearables: It's a form of self-expression that you wear on your wrist, and it must actually look good for you to want to wear it. It was a health tracker that wasn't as overtly health-coded as a Fitbit or a Garmin. In fact, when the Series 0 first launched, it had only a few simple health features—the now-iconic Activity Rings, the workout app, an optical heart sensor, and the heart app. Ten years on, Activity Rings remains one of the best examples yet of fitness gamification. (Today is also Global Close Your Rings Day; if you close them today, you get a limited-edition award.) Every fitness tracker has a step counter, but the visual demonstration of how little you have left to do to close the Move ring has launched a thousand memes, and even a couple T-shirts. A Wellness Story Prior to the Apple Watch, smartwatches were conceived as a kind of wrist-based mini smartphone, to ping you with notifications or to take calls off your wrist. David Naranjo, associate director of Counterpoint Research, noted in a phone call with WIRED that Apple's success in this category was largely due to completely changing the watch's use case—from being a smartwatch, to being a smartwatch with a dedicated health and fitness aspect. 'Fitbit and others had [an ecosystem and apps], but there were other things they were not able to do,' Naranjo said. 'Apple built out the ecosystem and made the healthcare story very strong. Not only did [the company] focus on fitness and heart rate, it went beyond fitness and looked at a much deeper level of healthcare. That's where Apple excelled.' Apple's ECG sensor launched on the Apple Watch Series 4. Photograph: Apple Every year, Apple launches one standout health feature, from measuring VO2 Max on the Series 3 to the ECG sensor on the Series 4, all the way to sleep apnea notifications on the Series 10. 'If you zoom out way into the future, and you look back and ask what Apple's biggest contribution was, it will be in the health area,' Cook said in an interview with WIRED last year. This is a bold thing to say, especially given that the Series 10 and Watch Ultra 2 don't even have blood oxygen measuring, due to a patent dispute with the medtech company Masimo. For a while, Apple has been doing research into features that would transform the Apple Watch for people with chronic conditions, like adding noninvasive blood glucose monitoring for diabetics, or adding blood pressure measuring for people with hypertension. Alas, despite promising advances, these features have yet to materialize. Apple's latest project, an AI-assisted comprehensive health service, is far behind other health manufacturers such as Oura, Whoop, or even Garmin. Imagine, for example, being able to take a picture of your meal with the Watch Ultra and uploading it to the (still rudimentary) Health app, the way you already can with the Meals feature on an Oura Ring 4. You have to imagine it for now, of course, because the Apple Watch doesn't currently have a camera, and Apple's Visual Intelligence is still limited to the iPhone 16. But it seems within reach. Still, the Watch's wearability and seeming ubiquity does mean that it has a track record of saving peoples' lives, whether that's by notifying users of an irregular heart rhythm via the ECG feature or calling the emergency services if it recognizes the user has fallen or been in a serious crash. I also have a personal anecdote to report—before the blood oxygen feature was removed, I had pneumonia. How did I know? My blood oxygen level, as measured by the watch, was at 84 percent. I went to urgent care and got antibiotics, stat. While Apple has not historically always been first to market with a new health feature, it's a fast follower, and the features nearly always work. 'Apple owners are very patient when it comes to Apple,' Naranjo says. 'They've come to believe that Apple doesn't rush to market with something that isn't almost perfect.' Why You Wear It That point seems to bear out with the research. In 2022, nearly 80 percent of Apple iPhone owners also owned an Apple Watch, and it accounted for 56 percent of smartwatch sales in the North American market. Most importantly, research suggests most people who own an Apple Watch are pretty satisfied with their device. As most of them are likely Apple users already, it helps that the Watch—like all Apple devices—integrates seamlessly with Apple's ecosystem. It's intuitive, easy to use, and has an interface that is pleasing to experience—both for the first time, and 10 years on. I still twirl and push every day the tiny digital crown every day, and find it a great way for navigating the device's smaller menus without obscuring text with your fingers. The Taptic Engine that gently buzzes on your wrist has now been adapted to dozens of uses, from waking you up in the morning to gently pointing you in the right direction while you're walking or biking around and using Apple Maps. There is no way to count just how many tourists have not gotten robbed because they did not need to pull out their phone to figure out how to get back to the hotel from the bagel shop, but the number I imagine must be considerable. Whether you're pausing a podcast or doing a couple toe touches in the middle of the day, life seems a little easier with an Apple Watch. The Apple Watch Series 10 and its many strap options. Photograph: Apple I took a brief and stunningly informal essay of WIRED Gear team members who also wear Apple Watches on why they bought or wear one. Notifications, integration with the Apple ecosystem, and fitness tracking were the most common answers. 'Waterllama also helps me keep track of my hydration,' product reviewer Ryan Waniata says. 'Can I confess that … the only thing I use my Apple Watch for is to ding my iPhone and find out where I lost it at home?' asked senior writer Zeyi Yang. Yes! I use it to find my AirPods Pro, too. The UWB chip that debuted in the Series 9 has saved countless minutes every morning, even if you're just finding AirTags and your phone with it, but sadly not using it to unlock your self-driving Apple car. It's so easy to use, we're still willing to forgive its most annoying flaws, most notably the battery life. Charging your Apple Watch every day is the bane of my existence, and despite years of efforts to improve it, the closest that Apple has come is to launch … fast charging? Loading media onto the watch, even basic offline maps, is such a hassle that even Apple has resigned itself to the fact that most people will end up carrying their phone instead. Apple Watch will even still buzz you to stand up when you're driving on a freeway. But most of all, there is the unfashionably-late arrival of Apple Intelligence, which launched on iPhone last October. So far, the only Apple Intelligence features that you can use on the Watch (if you have not disabled it due to privacy concerns, or the fact that it's just kind of annoying or inaccurate) are notification summaries and the Reduce Notifications focus. This is underwhelming, to say the least. The only consolation is that Apple Watch users are not the only Apple customers waiting for Apple Intelligence to become useful. In 2022, I wrote that Apple's wearables seem designed for an increasingly terrifying world. While I made fun of the marketing at the time, the world has gotten more uncertain and scary. I'm glad that I talked my husband into wearing an Apple Watch Ultra, and, thanks to Crash Detection, I will now know if he gets into a car accident on the way home. My aging parent now wears an Apple Watch with Fall Detection (and moved two blocks away from me, but that's another thing), which gives me peace of mind. Since I've gotten older, I'm glad that there are more cardio health features on the watch, particularly now that I know that nearly half of all adults in the United States have high blood pressure. So despite the slowing market, I am still waiting to see what new features—health or otherwise—will be announced at this year's WWDC, and later on this year. 'I would never count Apple out in terms of what they're able to do,' said Naranjo. 'They've proven time and time again that they can create a new category and make that category grow.' I can be patient and wait in Apple's sticky ecosystem biding time until blood glucose monitoring shows up. Ten years ago, we all asked if we could even find a use for Jony Ive's piece of glittery, buzzing jewelry; not even Apple knew the future success that it had on its hands (or its wrists). The Apple Watch is ubiquitous, and we're still waiting for more.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Arista Networks Inc (ANET) The Best Hardware Stock To Buy Now?
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) stands against other best hardware stocks to buy now. The computer hardware industry comprises personal computers, PC peripherals, storage devices, and servers for the high-growth data center industry. According to a report by The Business Research Company, the computer hardware industry was valued at $714.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% to reach $761 billion by 2025. The market is expected to expand further at a CAGR of 6.3% to reach $972 billion by 2029 eventually. The historic growth factors including the globalization of the supply chain, the rise of the internet, and the revolution in personal computing are still valid. It has been further boosted by the latest trends such as edge and quantum computing, the rise of AI and data centers, and hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The global PC market is one of the largest components of the hardware industry. According to a January 9 report by IDC, the PC shipments grew 1.8% during Q4 of 2024, with global volumes reaching 68.9 million. Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that overall the market is experiencing slower growth, however, the fourth quarter was aided by the Chinese government subsidies. The report also pointed out increased concern regarding the increased threats of new tariffs back in January 2025, noting that many brands experienced pull-ins during December as a preventive measure to get ahead of the tariffs. However, a more recent report published by IDC on April 8, revealed that the PC shipment market remained unaffected by the tariffs as the shipments grew by 4.9% during the first quarter of 2025. Jean Philippe Bouchard, research vice-president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that these increased shipments were largely a result of the entire ecosystem trying to accelerate the deliveries to avoid the first round of tariffs. He noted that although the market remained largely unaffected by the first round, however, the second round announced on April 2 could lead to an inflationary impact, thereby negatively impacting the shipments in the following quarters. To curate the list of the 10 best hardware stocks to buy now, we used the Finviz stock screener and Insider Monkey's Q4 2024 hedge funds database. Firstly, we aggregated a list of computer hardware stocks using the screener and sorted the list by market capitalization. Next, we ranked these stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (). A technician in a server room managing a large-scale network of Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) is a leading data-driven cloud networking company that provides technologies for large-scale data centers, campus environments, and routing systems. It operates through Core Networking Systems, Cognitive Adjacencies, and Network Software and Solutions. Its products range from high-speed ethernet switching platforms to Campus wired/wireless products. In fiscal 2024, Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) generated $7.03 billion in revenue, reflecting a 19.5% increase year-over-year. The company's cloud segment contributed around 48% to the annual revenue, whereas the core AI and data center products grew the annual revenue by around 65%. Notably, management shared that Meta has deployed its Arista 7700R4 Distributed Etherlink Switch for its latest Ethernet-based AI cluster. In addition, the company also introduced Switch Aggregation Group capability to its Arista EOS, which is used as an industry-standard Ethernet to group and manage switches. Moreover, on April 8, Morgan Stanley analyst Meta Marshall maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $73. It is one of the best hardware stocks to buy now. Artisan Global Opportunities Fund stated the following regarding Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'Along with NovoNordisk, a notable trim in the quarter included Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET). Arista Networks is the market leader in cloud networking equipment used in data centers. Shares have strongly outperformed since the beginning of 2023 as its ethernet options capture market share in AI cloud environments. Many of the largest buyers in this space are focused on utilizing Arista's networking technology, given meaningful increases in GPU utilization rates versus InfiniBand, the out-of-the-box solution from NVIDIA. We believe Arista remains exceptionally well positioned. However, we have been trimming the position due to our valuation discipline.' Overall, ANET ranks 2nd on our list of best hardware stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential of ANET to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ANET but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the . READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at .
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI) The Best Hardware Stock To Buy Now?
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) stands against other best hardware stocks to buy now. The computer hardware industry comprises personal computers, PC peripherals, storage devices, and servers for the high-growth data center industry. According to a report by The Business Research Company, the computer hardware industry was valued at $714.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% to reach $761 billion by 2025. The market is expected to expand further at a CAGR of 6.3% to reach $972 billion by 2029 eventually. The historic growth factors including the globalization of the supply chain, the rise of the internet, and the revolution in personal computing are still valid. It has been further boosted by the latest trends such as edge and quantum computing, the rise of AI and data centers, and hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The global PC market is one of the largest components of the hardware industry. According to a January 9 report by IDC, the PC shipments grew 1.8% during Q4 of 2024, with global volumes reaching 68.9 million. Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that overall the market is experiencing slower growth, however, the fourth quarter was aided by the Chinese government subsidies. The report also pointed out increased concern regarding the increased threats of new tariffs back in January 2025, noting that many brands experienced pull-ins during December as a preventive measure to get ahead of the tariffs. However, a more recent report published by IDC on April 8, revealed that the PC shipment market remained unaffected by the tariffs as the shipments grew by 4.9% during the first quarter of 2025. Jean Philippe Bouchard, research vice-president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that these increased shipments were largely a result of the entire ecosystem trying to accelerate the deliveries to avoid the first round of tariffs. He noted that although the market remained largely unaffected by the first round, however, the second round announced on April 2 could lead to an inflationary impact, thereby negatively impacting the shipments in the following quarters. To curate the list of the 10 best hardware stocks to buy now, we used the Finviz stock screener and Insider Monkey's Q4 2024 hedge funds database. Firstly, we aggregated a list of computer hardware stocks using the screener and sorted the list by market capitalization. Next, we ranked these stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (). A team of technicians in a server room, testing and managing the newest server Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) is a technology company that provides high-performance computing, storage, networking solutions, and green computing technology. Its key offerings include hardware solutions, rack-scale solutions, software, and green technologies. The company is known for its SuperBlade, MicroBlade, and SuperStorage technologies. On April 3, Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) announced the industry's first NVIDIA HGX B200 systems, which demonstrated robust AI performance as per the MLPerf Inference v5.0 benchmarks. The systems delivered more than 3 times the token generation per second in comparison to the previous systems. Moreover, the company released its preliminary second-quarter results for fiscal 2025. Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMCI) expects net sales within the range of $5.6 billion to $5.7 billion, indicating a 54% increase year-over-year. Management anticipates maintaining its leadership in direct-liquid-cooling technology with over 30% of data centers expected to adopt the technology over the next 12 months. It is one of the best hardware stocks to buy now. Overall, SMCI ranks 6th on our list of best hardware stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential of SMCI to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SMCI but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the . READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at . Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Western Digital Corporation (WDC) The Best Hardware Stock To Buy Now?
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) stands against other best hardware stocks to buy now. The computer hardware industry comprises personal computers, PC peripherals, storage devices, and servers for the high-growth data center industry. According to a report by The Business Research Company, the computer hardware industry was valued at $714.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% to reach $761 billion by 2025. The market is expected to expand further at a CAGR of 6.3% to reach $972 billion by 2029 eventually. The historic growth factors including the globalization of the supply chain, the rise of the internet, and the revolution in personal computing are still valid. It has been further boosted by the latest trends such as edge and quantum computing, the rise of AI and data centers, and hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The global PC market is one of the largest components of the hardware industry. According to a January 9 report by IDC, the PC shipments grew 1.8% during Q4 of 2024, with global volumes reaching 68.9 million. Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that overall the market is experiencing slower growth, however, the fourth quarter was aided by the Chinese government subsidies. The report also pointed out increased concern regarding the increased threats of new tariffs back in January 2025, noting that many brands experienced pull-ins during December as a preventive measure to get ahead of the tariffs. However, a more recent report published by IDC on April 8, revealed that the PC shipment market remained unaffected by the tariffs as the shipments grew by 4.9% during the first quarter of 2025. Jean Philippe Bouchard, research vice-president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that these increased shipments were largely a result of the entire ecosystem trying to accelerate the deliveries to avoid the first round of tariffs. He noted that although the market remained largely unaffected by the first round, however, the second round announced on April 2 could lead to an inflationary impact, thereby negatively impacting the shipments in the following quarters. To curate the list of the 10 best hardware stocks to buy now, we used the Finviz stock screener and Insider Monkey's Q4 2024 hedge funds database. Firstly, we aggregated a list of computer hardware stocks using the screener and sorted the list by market capitalization. Next, we ranked these stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (). A data center filled with racks of hard disk drives and solid state Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) is a leading technology company that provides data storage devices and solutions. Its product portfolio includes hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), embedded storage products, flash memory wafers, and data center software. On April 10, Benchmark upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy with a price target of $55. The positive sentiment was driven by Western Digital Corporation's (NASDAQ:WDC) developments in the flash memory and nearline drive segments. The analyst believes that these segments are projected to benefit from the improving market. During the fiscal second quarter of 2025, the company delivered $4.29 billion in revenue, reflecting a 5% quarter-over-quarter growth. The growth was driven by the Cloud segment which grew by 6% during the same time. Management expects strong performance from its HDD and has introduced a new strategic approach for its flash business which will help it in capturing the growing demand for AI Data Centers. Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) is the best hardware stock to buy now. Overall, WDC ranks 1st on our list of best hardware stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential of WDC to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than WDC but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the . READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at . Sign in to access your portfolio
