Hard Drive Prices to Remain Inflated Throughout 2012

[Guest]

It is past time the greedy PC component manufacturers bring manufacturing back the the United States where most (all) of the PC revolution began. Let the third world manufacturers sell to the people in their own countries, assuming any will be able to afford the cost of a drive on the slave wages they pay their workers. It is sad that we, in the "developed" countiries of the world depend on cheap prices for the components used to build our PC on the backs of underpaid workers in less developed Countries.

 

[ricardois]

I knew i should have bought at least 5 hds, but my mind was like, no i will wait for price to down a little...

 

[azxcvbnm321]

While the media is to be blamed for many things, creating an image that leads to higher prices isn't one of them. It's irrelevant as so are all the other conspiracy theories. Truth is that HD manufacturers didn't need a flood to raise prices, they could have done so at any time before and after. What are the consequences?

People like you and me don't buy HDs and vigorously delete old stuff to recycle space instead of getting a new HD. HDs then remain on the shelves and you know that technology products lose value VERY fast. Just go to Best Buy and look at all their old, outdated video cards, some from 1 or 2 generations ago that you laugh at. Those cards were once $199 cards, but now they are just about worthless, or $50 more accurately.

The lesson is that companies will sell their products at the market clearing price so as not to have inventory left over, but not so low as to have empty shelves and people waiting and snatching up new HDs as soon as they appear.

There are now fewer HDs available to sell. Prices SHOULD increase so that only those who really need them or want them will buy HDs. Prices should increase to the point where there is just enough demand to meet the limited supply. That is what's happening so there's no conspiracy or some dark forces working behind the scenes.

People like you and me wait for prices to drop and grumble, but businesses and others are buying the remaining inventory of HDs at a higher price. HDs can still be had for those who really want or need them and that's how it should work and does work.

 

[custodian-1]

[citation][nom]SkateZilla[/nom]the prices will never go down,the HDD Companies are going to do what the oil companies have been doing since the Pipeline broke,Raise the Price through the Roof, promise they are gonna lower them, lower them little by little and every time something happens, whether it affects the HDDs or not, they go right back up.So, prices will drop about $10 next month, and when a 200lb chunk of seaweed washes up on Australia's beach, they'll cite that it affected them somehow and jack the prices back up.[/citation]


Prices are going down their down about 20 - 25% now.

 

[Nakal]

This is one of the reasons why I decided on getting a nice 240GB Solid State Drive. I already have a couple TB in Hard Drives, and while I was looking at investing in a NAS, I decided a SSD was the way to go with the prices so inflated. I must say I am happy with my purchase, despite SSDs still being a lot more expensive per GB. The speed is awesome.

 

[noblerabbit]

Desktop HDD's in Canada are 2.8x the price of prefloods.
Enterprise class drives are ~4.5x.

These prices are here to stay, yay asian market dictators!

 

[noblerabbit]

[citation][nom]Tomfreak[/nom]they can continue the price hike for whatever there want, I just got enough HDD for 3yrs. So I can hold on for 3yrs without buying another one.[/citation]

Unfortunately, even with a 60% market Boycott, the demand of Harddrives in the last 2 years, is more than toilet paper. Enjoy the new low prices, there are here to stay.

 

[gokanis]

Guess I will stop dumping my DVDs to the server in prep for a new media player that can read ISOs. Im down to my last 200gb on my last 2TB. Now I'll just have to trudge down to the basement to grab a DVD when I want to watch one. Still have 300 more ISOs to make. sigh.

 

[TeraMedia]

I have ~ 10 TB of storage. I typically add 20% per year (and retire old drives along the way). But since this flood I've been waiting fearfully for a failure. I may end up buying a $150 3 TB external and gutting it if prices don't get better soon.

 

[Darkerson]

Glad i dont need one this year. picked me up an SSD and am using the old mechanical drive for storage.

 

[waethorn]

Water + Manufacturing = Prices going through the roof + warranties dropping through the floor

 

[Northwestern]

If manufacturers are too stubborn to lower the prices then I'll be too stubborn to buy a new HDD. Rather, I can take advantage of SSD technology while rationing out those early-2000 hard drives I have piling up.

 

[in_the_loop]

[citation][nom]aidynphoenix[/nom]i dont know about the rest of you.. but i see a 215% +++ increase in prices. i bought my 500gb WD caviar blue $55.99 may 25th 2010. and now the same drive sells for $120. yet right before the flooding i remember being able to buy a 1tb drive for the same price. $50-60-ish. WD caviar Black 1TB is at $200 right now.. thats ALOT for 1TB.[/citation]

I don't think it affects all manufacturers drivers and all sizes.
I took a look at the chepeast hardrive per GB right now and it costs 80% more than it did in october last year and that is about $150 for a 2 TB drive. The comparasion is made in Sweden with 25% VAT (tax for gods) so it probably costs less in the US.

 

[JohnUSA]

This is pure GOUGING, and I never bought their crummy excuses.
This BS price fixing will continue until one or more ethical (if there is one) manufacturer will announce that there are no longer any shortages and prices will revert back to the price levels before the floods.
If there are REAL shortages how come Seagate's profits went up 5 times ????????
Seagate .... I hate you., and all other cheating manufacturers. May you all receive what you deserve.

 

[fmohiy]

[citation][nom]austin512[/nom]Everybody complaining about price fixing has no idea what they're talking about. When there's a shortage, prices will go up. And since most hard drives are purchased in advanced through contracts, it's the in the spot market prices that will skyrocket, and this is what shows up in places like Newegg and Amazon.If you're complaining about record profits, you're complaining about those companies not in Thailand (doing the smart thing according to you), now reaping the benefits of their competitors' mistake. Those companies are the reason there are any hard drives still for sale at all.If you think that manufacturers have an incentive you keep prices high, you obviously haven't considered those companies losing money for the last 4 months because they haven't had anything to sell. And the first company to get everything working again can take advantage of the currently high prices until they go back to normal. There are huge incentive for getting their production back up precisely because prices are high.[/citation]

True, Economics 101

 

[jbo5112]

[citation][nom]molo9000[/nom]Retailers don't have the power to influence the prices. If they price their merchandise too high, customers are going to buy somewhere else.If anyone has the power to influence prices, it's the manufacturers themselves, but even they are in fierce competition.[/citation]

All two companies making 3.5" desktop drives? How competitive can it be when they're pooling resources for R&D?

 

[Guest]

segates profit last year was 55 million this year its 567 million DONT BUY SEGATE not affected their production hardly at all their per unit cost went up by £3 but we pay nearly 200% more -.-