|
Despite supply coming back, HDD makers will keep prices inflated
|
|
The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 5 April, 2012
Last year, a historical flood in Thailand left 13 million people homeless and a significant amount of factories with over 3 feet of water.
Many of those factories were used to produce hard drives and the flood has led to a industry that has huge demand and small supply equaling bad news for consumers. In fact, over a few months, average prices on HDDs rose 47 percent, taking Western Digital's ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
|
Senior Member
|
5. April 2012 @ 20:18 |
Link to this message
|
Exactly what I predicted in the last article about this.
That the HD manufacturers were getting sick and tired of the prices being expected to be at $79.99 for mass market HDD's so they are artificially inflating the price and blaming it on this crap.
I've been buying consumer HD's forever. The price is/was predictable. Wait until the drive you want goes on sale for $80 and then buy.
It seems as if they want to set that bar at $120 now.
Oh, Im sorry... Did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?
|
|
Advertisement
|
 |
|
|
|
GryphB
Member
|
5. April 2012 @ 20:36 |
Link to this message
|
|
I'll wait for the prices to come back down again.
|
|
ivymike
Member
|
5. April 2012 @ 20:42 |
Link to this message
|
|
Greedy A$$h0les.
|
|
statomike
Junior Member
|
5. April 2012 @ 21:20 |
Link to this message
|
|
You should feel dirty to have that gross PR euphemism on the page.
"Price erosion" = market competition.
"Recover some of the excessive price erosion that began in 2009" = "Recover" from a state of pro-consumer competition.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 5. April 2012 @ 21:21
|
Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 01:52 |
Link to this message
|
|
Yeah no surprises here. You see this everyday with gas prices.
|
Senior Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 03:14 |
Link to this message
|
|
I'm not buying another drive until they come back down in price. Perhaps this is SSDs' big chance to catch up with HDD pricing and topple the greedy hard drive cartels.
|
|
ivymike
Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 04:02 |
Link to this message
|
|
+1
|
|
jeff_2
Junior Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 07:53 |
Link to this message
|
|
I think we all knew this would happen, which is kind of sad. I was going to buy an external hard disk, but now I think Ill wait another six months in the hopes that the prices will drop. Perhaps we will see a new market entrant selling HDD at realistic price, that will undercut the current competition :D
Also on that price erosion bit, they were in competition with each other, that always brings down prices, then there was a substitution service that consumers started using, cyber lockers. But with the current political climate and the war on 'Piracy' HDD manufacturers will feel less threaten by cyber lockers.
|
Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 09:29 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by jeff_2:
I think we all knew this would happen, which is kind of sad. I was going to buy an external hard disk, but now I think Ill wait another six months in the hopes that the prices will drop. Perhaps we will see a new market entrant selling HDD at realistic price, that will undercut the current competition :D
Also on that price erosion bit, they were in competition with each other, that always brings down prices, then there was a substitution service that consumers started using, cyber lockers. But with the current political climate and the war on 'Piracy' HDD manufacturers will feel less threaten by cyber lockers.
I agree, I thought about storing my data online, but with the justice department's war on piracy, I decided to keep my data on external HDD's. Doesn't matter if you have or don't have pirated data (Software, movies, music, etc.) lots of people had legitimate data on Megaupload and looked what happened.
|
|
oledawg
Newbie
|
6. April 2012 @ 09:48 |
Link to this message
|
|
This trend could be construed as 'price fixing'.
The manufacturers need to watch their communications with each other very carefully while this is going on.
|
Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 11:51 |
Link to this message
|
Meet the "Gas" for your PC. Maybe I should invest in Seagate and WD? Anyone for speculation on HDD's?
?Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Forget this... and attaining enlightenment is the least of your problems.?
?Zen Judaism by Someone Clever
|
Senior Member
1 product review
|
6. April 2012 @ 14:17 |
Link to this message
|
|
Profiteering all the way. Really sick of this. Just another case of the "what the market will bare/bear". I really do wish someone would have the balls to pull a Sam Walton (the old, "REAL", Sam Walton, not this crap passing for him now) & bring back the "stack it high & watch it fly" sales approach.
It would be nice to see a group of companies actually give a shit about their consumer base as apposed to 'selling' us on believing that they actually care. You know, actions speak louder than words.
God forbid they drop the prices to $60 & folks buy 2 drives. I mean is it me or are there folks running 2 for one or BOGO sales all over the place as I write? It damn sure wouldn't kill them.
|
|
Frogfart
Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 18:08 |
Link to this message
|
|
This won't bother me as I have too many old drives on the shelf screaming to be used. I will wait to the prices drop.
|
Senior Member
|
6. April 2012 @ 18:24 |
Link to this message
|
|
I just had to buy one last week and was happy to pay $130 for 2Tb.
Makes me sick to pay that much.
I could use a couple more but I'll certainly not "stock up" until some company comes along and offers me a drive at a decent price.
Oh, Im sorry... Did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?
|
|
oledawg
Newbie
|
6. April 2012 @ 23:52 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by LordRuss:
Profiteering all the way. Really sick of this. Just another case of the "what the market will bare/bear". I really do wish someone would have the balls to pull a Sam Walton (the old, "REAL", Sam Walton, not this crap passing for him now) & bring back the "stack it high & watch it fly" sales approach.
It would be nice to see a group of companies actually give a shit about their consumer base as apposed to 'selling' us on believing that they actually care. You know, actions speak louder than words.
God forbid they drop the prices to $60 & folks buy 2 drives. I mean is it me or are there folks running 2 for one or BOGO sales all over the place as I write? It damn sure wouldn't kill them.
If folks hold off purchasing retail disk drives at the 'new (higher)' selling price, they will eventually have to lower their pricing to clear the older inventory out because the factories just keep churning out product.
They are probably overcharging us while they sell in bulk to the OEMs at the original 'old (lower)' selling price.
|
|
Mr_Bill06
Member
|
7. April 2012 @ 04:55 |
Link to this message
|
|
I use to pay $89 for a 2tb HDD and I am not paying $150. I did indeed find it weird when I RMA a WD Black 1TB HDD a few months back that was acting up on me. When I got the new one the listed price was $69.99 if I lost the one I was shipping back they wanted $120.00 from me. Like others where saying where they ever really effected that bad with the floods?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. April 2012 @ 04:56
|
Senior Member
5 product reviews
|
7. April 2012 @ 11:41 |
Link to this message
|
Excuse me, executives and the like of Western Digital, but artificially raising prices on your products to gain your own selfish interest does NOT get your products flying off the shelves but insults the consumer's intelligence, or did you get that memo by now? Guess not.
Chance prepares the favored mind. Look up once in a while and you might learn something. - BLUEBOY
|
|
Jeffrey_P
Senior Member
|
7. April 2012 @ 16:03 |
Link to this message
|
|
|
|
hearme0
Senior Member
|
8. April 2012 @ 01:39 |
Link to this message
|
|
FINE!!!!!!!!!!
Keep those prices inflated........and see how your sales remain minuscule!
I won't buy until they're reasonable again.......no one I know will either. Only would buy if an HDD failed and I absolutely needed one.
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
|
|
SoulGLOW
Member
|
8. April 2012 @ 18:36 |
Link to this message
|
You guys do understand the most basic of all economic principals right? Supply and demand? Yeah I will agree that I am not going to buy either. If I do then I will definitely be buying the best like a WD BLACK series. Besides this just pushes me to watch more porn thru streaming instead of downloading.
|
|
wkehr
Newbie
|
8. April 2012 @ 20:13 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by kettlechips:
So for giggles and grins, I just looked through my Newegg order history and found the 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ I bought on Dec 3 2010 for $70
...
newegg is still selling it, but for $140!!!! it literally DOUBLED in price as a result of this price-speculation madness...
Ok, lets look at the math. The profit margin increases from 19% to 32%. That would work out to a drive increasing in cost from $70 to $74.85 (a net increase of 7%). Yet it doubles in price. So possibly it's not the drive manufacturers who are responsible for most of the increase.
Look at the math another way. With the profit margin changing from 19% to 32%, they can sell 40% fewer to make the same profit.
It's curious, but some of the opposite thing happens over and over in the memory market whenever there is too much capacity. The chip makers have to sell at a loss. How many people decide to pay more so that they are buying memory at the "Fair" price. Come to think of it, how many people have ever turned down a raise because they were getting more than they needed for basic housing and food and the like.
|
Senior Member
1 product review
|
9. April 2012 @ 11:14 |
Link to this message
|
Originally posted by wkehr:
Come to think of it, how many people have ever turned down a raise because they were getting more than they needed for basic housing and food and the like.
True... The biggest trick for getting people to turn down a raise (or not asking for a raise) was to offer them one that would put them into another tax bracket, thus defeating the purpose of getting the damn thing to begin with. It always looked good on paper, but you still didn't earn anything in the whole scheme of things.
Similar situation could be said to exist here. Manufacturers are still making their profits, but where's the value to the customer? What was a value at originally half the cost is now gone "and" they've now adding the bonus of losing their customer pipeline because of these games.
Sounds like another idiot college graduate that sat atop a 'good idea bomb' & sold it to the brass again, because this smacks of not looking down the 5 year road. I.e., another grab your money & run, let the next guy coming in live with it scheme.
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
|
