|
WD: Hard drive prices are 47 percent higher since Thai floods
|
|
The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 24 January, 2012
Western Digital has reported their quarterly earnings today, and there are finally some hard numbers to show off the effect of the floods in Thailand.
Year-over-year, the company saw a huge drop in drives shipped, down to 28.5 million down from 52.2 million. The company took a $200 million loss in expenses related to the floods, and a $500 million drop in total revenue.
On the other ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
|
|
Blessedon
Member
1 product review
|
25. January 2012 @ 07:08 |
Link to this message
|
Good; This is how supply-and-demand should work.
I may need a HD right now, but I can wait. In the long run, we will all benefit from lower prices due to competition.
Now, many will see this as "evil corporate...blah, blah". They can not see beyond tomorrow.
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
|
Mysttic
Senior Member
|
25. January 2012 @ 08:03 |
Link to this message
|
I can't really call this corporate greed myself, if they had stayed the same prices as 2011, they never would have met supply and demand which is what dictates the market. This is how all PC hardware worked since the dawn of it, so this should really be of no surprise to anyone.
Thankfully to myself, I glad I don't need new HDDs anytime soon; it sucks for other people, but then with the way tablets and smart phones are booming, I don't think it'll matter to most people anyhow.
|
Senior Member
1 product review
|
25. January 2012 @ 11:41 |
Link to this message
|
|
It's a shame that this subject had to come back up again, but then again, I haven't bought a new HDD in quite some time due to price increase as well.
I feel for the folks in those flood areas, but have no love lost for corporations.
When I commented on the original story, I refused to believe that a company (at least one of this size, of course) would 'put all it eggs in one basket'. Like the BP spill, to not use common sense & have a safety net in place or have redundancy seemed fool hardy. Yet, here we are.
Now that the president spoke last night about HUGE incentives to corporations invite them back into the US (like it used to be) I'm wondering what kind of debacle that's going to cause in the short run as well.
Part of me is thinking back to some of the baby-boomers mentality toward foreign technology & American pride in manufacturing. The other is thinking back to a power change in office again, just when things JUST start to work & things go right back to total shite & the US starts sharing that fecal sandwich with everybody again.
I would really like to know why any of this has stopped research & development on higher capacity HDDs at all anyway. Haven't heard anything from fan/consumer based PC publications in a while about the subject... So? Manufacturing is the least of the problems at the moment anyway.
|
|
hearme0
Senior Member
|
25. January 2012 @ 13:25 |
Link to this message
|
|
I agree with LordRuss.
But this is what companies like WD get for outsourcing. You outsourced to a country/region know for natural disasters, flooding, famine, poverty and now you're reaping what you sow.
Bring that shit back to the United States where it belongs and put OUR people back to work and then a couple things will follow: likely not to get flooded, more integral workers and better quality...........Yes........a little more expensive but whatever! Tax incentives for doing this I'm sure, better rep, closer to home therefore easier to monitor.
|
|
ddp
Moderator
|
25. January 2012 @ 13:56 |
Link to this message
|
|
hearme0, the us also gets natural disasters like flooding, earthquakes & fires.
|
Senior Member
1 product review
|
25. January 2012 @ 14:23 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by ddp:
hearme0, the us also gets natural disasters like flooding, earthquakes & fires.
Now, now... We don't have to build everything in every river basin and tornado alley we can find either. Let's at least show cooler heads here and let our group tout & picket for common sense before they pack their suit cases & board their planes back to the red, white & blue balled.
|
|
ddp
Moderator
|
25. January 2012 @ 14:25 |
Link to this message
|
|
just stating a known fact.
|
Senior Member
1 product review
|
25. January 2012 @ 14:47 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by ddp:
just stating a known fact.
Cause everyone loves a disaster...
|
|
pounder
Newbie
|
25. January 2012 @ 15:08 |
Link to this message
|
I've Been Noticing since Boxing Day the solid increase, WD, & Seagate, But I won't touch aSeagate ever. So Glad I Picked up a WDC
2.0 TB after Labor Day,for a 100.00 CDN.at Best buy.
pounder!
|
Staff Member
4 product reviews
|
25. January 2012 @ 15:33 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by hearme0:
.Yes........a little more expensive but whatever! Tax incentives for doing this I'm sure, better rep, closer to home therefore easier to monitor.
The "little" in your statement is not accurate. An American worker would cost more per hour than a Thai worker would likely cost for 2 days. NO tax or reputation incentive can change that.
|
Senior Member
|
25. January 2012 @ 15:33 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by LordRuss:
...I would really like to know why any of this has stopped research & development on higher capacity HDDs at all anyway. Haven't heard anything from fan/consumer based PC publications in a while about the subject... So? Manufacturing is the least of the problems at the moment anyway.
New 4TB drives are starting to show up.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145563
5TB drives are on their way. Hitachi and Seagate are using 1tb platters now
|
Senior Member
1 product review
|
25. January 2012 @ 15:50 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by ChiknLitl:
New 4TB drives are starting to show up.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145563
5TB drives are on their way. Hitachi and Seagate are using 1tb platters now
Well shut my mouth! I mean they're in the stores, but I certainly haven't seen them on the tech circuit. I guess the SSDs are getting all the attention at the moment.
Sadly, I can't really afford one of those puppies right now either, which is just as depressing too.
Originally posted by DVDBack23:
Originally posted by hearme0:
.Yes........a little more expensive but whatever! Tax incentives for doing this I'm sure, better rep, closer to home therefore easier to monitor.
The "little" in your statement is not accurate. An American worker would cost more per hour than a Thai worker would likely cost for 2 days. NO tax or reputation incentive can change that.
Other than to say "automation", knocks a bunch of the physical, repetitive labor equation out the door. Logistics is still going to be within the borders no matter what & seeing as how the gov wants to play 'ping pong' with the nuts of our postal service, there may be something on the horizon there as well.
Just as a closer, seeing as unemployment insurance has all but run out for everyone, virtually EVERY state has turned into a 'right to work state' (making unions useless), I would say 'any job' is job enough at the moment.
So I'm not calling the debate wrong/right. I'm calling it about it about 80% plausible right about now.
|
|
djgizmo
Member
|
25. January 2012 @ 17:30 |
Link to this message
|
|
This is a good thing as it'll provide SSD incentives to grab market share... and when they SSD providers have a decent amount of market share, regular HDs will go back on sale.
|
|
ivymike
Member
|
25. January 2012 @ 18:57 |
Link to this message
|
|
When they said that the prices of SSD's would become competitive with the prices of HDD's, I was hoping that the price of SSD's would DROP.....NOT the exact opposite!!!
|
|
Blessedon
Member
1 product review
|
25. January 2012 @ 20:18 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by ivymike:
When they said that the prices of SSD's would become competitive with the prices of HDD's, I was hoping that the price of SSD's would DROP.....NOT the exact opposite!!!
Right! djgizmo's statement inadvertently notes the natural bleed that will occur in a market when there is a disruption of supply for a lower priced item; the loss of HDD supply completely eliminates the downward trend of SSD prices....
until the end of the year anyway :)
But, that's cool. We are all better off this way in the long run.
|
|
ddp
Moderator
|
25. January 2012 @ 21:42 |
Link to this message
|
|
are we better off in the long run?
|
|
ivymike
Member
|
26. January 2012 @ 04:21 |
Link to this message
|
|
I wanted to stock up on HDD's as I have multiple machines at my house....I guess it'll have to wait.....
|
|
FreddyF
Junior Member
|
27. January 2012 @ 10:32 |
Link to this message
|
From the prices, I would think all hard drives are made in the same factory, or at least in the same river valley. Not only have prices more than doubled here (Italy) but the selection keeps going down. I haven't seen a full size external drive for a good month, from any company.
This is an interesting display of suppply and demand. Hopefully the "manufacturers" will diversify their production. It is sad, but I think they have done what most conputer "manufacturers" have done and outsourced their manufacturing to the point that HP, Lenove, Apple, DELL, ASUS and Acer are not manufacturers anymore, they are just resellers. At this point FoxConn should buy a distribution network and start selling their own computers direct, they could do it far cheaper for better quality than anyone else.
|
|
Mez
AfterDawn Addict
|
28. January 2012 @ 08:47 |
Link to this message
|
Well I could have used another 2g disk but after shopping I recycled some older disks. I am encouraged that others are doing the same. Originally posted by FreddyF:
From the prices, I would think all hard drives are made in the same factory, or at least in the same river valley. Not only have prices more than doubled here (Italy) but the selection keeps going down. I haven't seen a full size external drive for a good month, from any company.
This is an interesting display of suppply and demand. Hopefully the "manufacturers" will diversify their production. It is sad, but I think they have done what most conputer "manufacturers" have done and outsourced their manufacturing to the point that HP, Lenove, Apple, DELL, ASUS and Acer are not manufacturers anymore, they are just resellers. At this point FoxConn should buy a distribution network and start selling their own computers direct, they could do it far cheaper for better quality than anyone else.
I hearty suggest buying a few nextstar boxes and load them with internals when the prices go back to normal. You pay more but you get what you pay for. Most externals have minimal power supplies which shortens their life. Most externals are packed with garbage.
|
|
FreddyF
Junior Member
|
28. January 2012 @ 13:51 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by Mez:
I hearty suggest buying a few nextstar boxes and load them with internals when the prices go back to normal. You pay more but you get what you pay for. Most externals have minimal power supplies which shortens their life. Most externals are packed with garbage.
I am looking at something like a qnap 4 to 6 bay NAS or getting a cheap desktop and using it as a server. I need 6-8 TB minimum today, to cover the external drives. I need to do a lot of research, to find out what will work best for my network.
|
|
Mez
AfterDawn Addict
|
29. January 2012 @ 10:28 |
Link to this message
|
|
Well then you should not be shopping for external drives which are made from junk but a raid or a NAS. Even with high speed networks the network will be the bottleneck. A raid can be accessed by one computer at high speed 3x faster than the fastest network pulling from 1 disk at a time and 6x if you pull from 2 disks at a time, while a NAS will connect to all devices at network speed.
|
|
kfir1
Member
|
1. February 2012 @ 01:04 |
Link to this message
|
|
Why the HELL these hard drive manufacturers have only one manufacturing location and of all places a country that floods every year. They need to put these factories on STILTS.
There are other countries in Asia that are not below sea level. A great place is the Philippines.
|
|
ddp
Moderator
|
1. February 2012 @ 01:25 |
Link to this message
|
|
typhoons there.
|
|
kfir1
Member
|
1. February 2012 @ 02:19 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by ddp:
typhoons there.
But higher grounds and typhoons cant destroy a concrete building.
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
ddp
Moderator
|
1. February 2012 @ 13:19 |
Link to this message
|
|
can take the roofs off, blow out all the windows & doors damaging the interior, knock power lines out & cause landslides from to much rain.
|
