While it is easy to understand why the destruction of a good portion of the HDD industries manufacturing capabilities caused by the flooding in Thailand would effect both the availability and pricing of HDDs it is not so easy to explain what those manufacturers are doing now. It is not just the reduction in warranty to 1 year which we previously informed you about, it is the bizarre pricing which adds to the confusion. This is an industry which has collapsed into two major players, with two others appearing to compete but in reality are working with or outright owned by the two major players. They are under siege from the SSD industry which offers longer warranty, better performance and prices which are falling quickly; making the high prices and lousy warranty offered by HDD manufactures quite unattractive. The Tech Report assembled an array of graphs which display the state of the hard drive companies as well as some suggestions on the best current deals in HDDs if you are inclined to pick one up.
"Mechanical hard drive prices rose sharply after last year's Thailand flooding. Prices have fallen since, but their decline has slowed in recent months. We take a closer look at the numbers."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Fiberglass-reinforced cases expected to be adopted for ultrabooks in 2H12 @ DigiTimes
- Adobe Stops Flash Player Support For Android @ Slashdot
- Techies evac'd as raging wildfire menaces $100m Colorado data centre @ The Register
- Raspberry Pi enclosure turns it into a desktop PC @ Hack a Day
- Netgear WNDR4500 Dual Band Gigabit Router @ X-bit Labs
- I, Cyborg @ The Tech Report
- Win the KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 LTD OC 2048MB @ Kitguru
This price fixing scam won’t
This price fixing scam won’t help them. The discouraging over-inflated prices will just make people, like me, buy SSD drives, which in turn will cause SSD drives to go down in price. By 2014/2015 when I buy my 1 – 2TB SSD from Crucial, I’ll enjoy all the performance benefits minus the power consumption and higher potential of hardware failure while the HDD manufacturers suck my cock.
kind of expected, when there
kind of expected, when there are only 2 manufacturers left(major players in consumer segment). I think soon enough these two WD and Seagate are going to pay for this ridiculous price fixing scam. SSD’s have dropped in prices to the point to which more and more consumers are choosing them over HDD’s are primary boot device.
really? they’ll be sucking
really? they’ll be sucking your cock?
blog comments….just disable them already.
They must be making money,
They must be making money, but I wonder if the shortsightedness is really a blundering mistake, or if there are other forces at work here – most notably some HDD technological advance on the horizon that will keep them a viable option in the near future.
Salt in the platter anyone?!?
Back in September 2011 I
Back in September 2011 I bought 2 Samsung 1tb drives for $48 each shipped from Newegg!
I hear you all complain I
I hear you all complain I come from a time When a Bargain priced HDD = $10.00 per Gig
so 1 TB HDD for any where near $100 is dirt cheap
as it is as you are discovering soon to be out dated technology.
As someone who came from a
As someone who came from a time when a buck a meg was a really good deal… 😉 [I’m sure someone else will upstage me with an even older figure]
Luckily, I had the good fortune of timing it just right – scored a 2TB drive for $50 out of the bargain bin at Micro Center right before the flooding, when I put together my new system.
I for one will welcome our
I for one will welcome our new SSD overlords.
The irony of the computing
The irony of the computing industry is when technology gets out of date, the price goes back up.
This is why I can’t get a Q9650 anywhere for less than $300 even though you can get an Ivy Bridge that blows it out of the water for half that price.
if you have been in the game
if you have been in the game for a while you will notice this type of trend…what I don’t get is Today – ad for: OCZ Octane 128gb $79.00 Aus. Now what the –
A-RAM 64GB TURBO 3 USB3.0 Flash Drive, Ultra High read/write speed 80MB/50MB/s $$$105.00 au.
or
A-RAM 8GB TRX-200 USB3.0 Flash Drive, TURBO series, black colour, compatible with USB 3.0/2.0/1.0 version ON SPECIAL $$13.00 au.
now 6×13=$208, ok so it’s different type of nand and it’s new USB 3.0 tech but what gives…I still don’t own a 64gb usb thumb drive (Lot’s a 16gb and 8’s) for this reason and it’s been years…I could buy old Tech (usb2.0) but Y!
same with Video cards to bigger price gap between mid range and high[er] end…
Big Chiefs ! great way to screw us…don’t get me started on printer cartridges. 😉