CAISS Dinner Seminar

Date: Mar. 19, 2009 (Thursday)

Registration: 6:30 ¡V 7:00 PM

Dinner: 7:00 ¡V 8:00 PM

Seminar: 8:00 ¡V 9:00 PM

Place: China Stix Restaurant, 2110 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, (408) 244-1684

Title: The Netbook and the Future of Storage in PCs

Speaker: Mark Geenen, TRENDFOCUS president and CEO

Seminar Abstract:

Steering away from the current emotion and negative outlook, this presentation will examine how the netbook is changing the face of both personal computing and client storage. Today's netbook -- perhaps the only area of demand growth for HDDs in 2009 -- represents seismic shifts in mobile computing, mobile storage cost structure, and the role of external storage. SSDs were the original storage of choice in netbooks, but user requirement for storage combined with PC makers' quest for profitability compelled the change to HDDs. But SSDs may yet play a pivotal role in netbooks, particularly as mobile computing devices evolve in the coming years. Topics to be covered in this presentation include the fundamental changes (price, cost/performance, size) underway in mobile PCs, the HDD-SSD ratio in netbooks; and a new axiom, "The <$40 Storage Budget."

Speaker Biography:

Mark Geenen is the president and founder of TRENDFOCUS, one of the leading providers of market intelligence in the data storage industry. His experience in the HDD market spans back to the 1980s. Mr. Geenen is also Chairman of IDEMA, the trade association of the data storage industry.