Saturday, November 5th 2011
Thailand Floods: HDD Prices To Remain Extortionately High As Supplies Get Tighter
The recent dreadful flooding in Thailand has forced the closure of several hard drive factories. The immediate concerns of course, are for the health and wellbeing of the people living and working in the area. The wider concern is the severe restriction in hard drive manufacturing capacity. Already, prices have doubled or tripled, depending on the exact model affected. The biggest HD manufacturer, Western Digital, has been hit the hardest, as IDC predicts that up to 75% of its production will be shut down. This means, that the big corporate HDD customers, those like HP and Dell, who build computer systems in large volumes, will get whatever inventory is available to fully satisfy their needs. Whatever is left is then sold on to the retail channel, for ordinary consumers to buy. IDC believes that hard disk production will reach pre-flood levels by around March, but that HDD levels by then will be very low. The prices should go through the roof then, in the meantime. As expected, this will also increase the prices of complete systems, as such a price hike is too much to absorb fully.
Source:
Network World
94 Comments on Thailand Floods: HDD Prices To Remain Extortionately High As Supplies Get Tighter
it sucks for the victims, sucks for manufactures and it sucks for those of us who need more TBs :\
This will result in SSD production increase and slightly increased prices, (or big increase if we're unlucky) But when the normal HDD production is back on track, the increased SSD production capacity will make the prices of SSD plumet...
Thats what i'm hoping anyways ;)
Also, Seagate will be phasing out its line of 5900RPM drives completely (the infamous 2 dimes savings).
So, in a few months' time, Seagate (not sure about competing offerings) will use 7200RPM drives only, or as part of their hybrid series (SSD & HDD combined - improved XT series, if you will).
;)
Extortionately is not the same as extortion, I see nothing wrong with the title :confused:
and now 3 days back again asked and he said now 10.4k ..
its all due to flood
As far as I am concerned it's fitting they are extortionately high compared to 2 weeks ago, that is not the same thing as saying there is extortion happening and that's why they are so high, but I guess it's how you read it?
It's figurative and one could say you were being literal or pedantic..
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cac...
:eek:
When some 25% (or less) of all HDDs are manufactured in Thailand, yet the price of HDDs is doubling or tripling in price, then the only conclusion that can be drawn is what I mentioned before.
Yes, WD has invested heavily in operations in Thailand, but the other major HDD manufacturers (most notably Seagate and Toshiba) have no such investment, yet their prices have gone up by the same amount, then one has to wonder..
Human tragedy == massive profit.
It's not the first, nor the last time this happens.
If evidence to the contrary can be presented, I'm most curious, especially as I have worked both in a hospital for 7 years, as well as having toured some of the plants where HDDs are made (a clean room that's up to 100 times cleaner than an operating theatre is quite an experience to behold).
Oh mighty dollar :/
I probably won't though because that knowledge won't get the prices any lower.
If only SSDs weren't so bloody expensive XD
I rue the day XD
Second,
This does make SSDs look more manageable.
Also externals have not changed much, I got an email last week about 2TB for $79...