HDD Prices Not Expected to Decline Until 2014

[Guest]

The Thailand floods of 2011 will be impacting HDD prices for some time. In addition to the shortages, a new market environment is favoring higher prices and pre-flood levels will not be reached until 2014, market researchers at IHS said.

HDD Prices Not Expected to Decline Until 2014 : Read more

 

[Vettedude]

That's BullShit. Sounds like collusion and sounds pretty illegal.

 

[phamhlam]

HDD? What is a HDD? I only know SSD.

 

[BigBodZod]

[citation][nom]VetteDude[/nom]That's BullShit. Sounds like collusion and sounds pretty illegal.[/citation]

I agree but who is going to whack them ?!?

Certainly not the US and probably not the EU either, we have a defacto duopoly now, what can be done other then boycotting and essentially you not being able to purchase any more storage for quite awhile.

 

[mouse24]

They are decreasing in price, just a few months ago (4 ish) a spinpoint F3 was selling for 140 bucks 109 (and on newegg there is a 30 dollars off promo code)

 

[mouse24]

damn you brain! "they are now selling for 109" is how it should have read.

 

[drwho1]

This is bullpoop!
Hard drives prices have been declining for a while now....
Granted, they are not where they should have been (without all this nonsense)
2TB drives used to be at $79 before this fiasco, now they can be found for $99-$109
so still "not quite there yet" but no way that this article can be taken seriously.

Still waiting for the 5TB drives for $120 or so... now THIS I might have to wait till 2014-2015

 

[fudoka711]

The 2TB WD Caviar Black I've had my eye on for a few months now dropped in price by $30 on Amazon in the past week (and there's a $30 promo on NewEgg, not coincidentally I assume).

But I highly doubt the prices will drop by that much even by Christmas. Ah, remember when we could get 2TB HDDs for 89.99 during Christmas? And 89.99-109.99 the rest of the year? The good old days...

 

[A Bad Day]

Collective price gouging. I should invest in those HDD companies because higher profit margins should boost profits, which typically give investors and stock market analysts a high.

 

[jlopezst20]

hah!! with the SSD threat looming in the horizon... they dare pull some bullshit trick like this one??

@VetteDude I bet it is a collusion, they must've seen some good profits from squeezing every dollar out of those HDDs... sigh... price fixing, anyone?

 

[thepieman]

I still fondly remember that time when I bought a 2TB caviar green for $70...

 

[Guest]

#$!* Should have bought twenty 2TB WD Caviar Blacks at $90 when i first read news of HDD shortages in Thailand.

 

[leongrado]

Oh well. As long as SSD prices go down I could care less.

 

[jaquith]

Considering that the World economy is in technically a 'Depression' they can dream on or swim in their HDDs. Over the past few months the Spinpoint F3 has dropped from a peak of $165 down to $80 from it's $65 low or pre-flood pricing.

The reports that I brought to TH attention stated early 2013 for Supply and Demand to level-out.

Last Global PC Sales showed negative year-over-year growth.

Further, as SSD approach parity of HDD costs the HDD's are going the way of the Dodo Bird.

 

[spasmolytic46]

First and foremost I'll be doing my part by not purchasing any more HDD capacity until prices drop to pre-flood levels and come with the old 5 year warranties. Secondly, if that really does take till 2014 I may start implementing alternate storage methods, Blue ray for long term storage is now looking pretty good. Thirdly, SSD's are getting cheaper by the quarter and the HDD's might lose a lot of their competitive advantage. Fourth, any idiot betting on the future of their business expanding with windows 8 to sell a lot of volume ought to be demoted.

 

[Wamphryi]

I also am refusing to purchase HDD's until the costs return to where they should be. I have been encouraging customers to buy SSD instead. As spasmolytic has pointed out blu ray is a good alternative and one I have made full use of.

 

[TheProudNoob]

I bought a 2TB HDD and I now have a 120GB SSD, so I'm not going to have to upgrade for at least 3 years... 1.62TB free / 77.6GB free.

Yep

 

[adgjlsfhk]

"HDDs are currently selling for an average of $65"

What size? Different capacity hard drives sell for different amounts, so what does this mean?

 

[TidalWaveOne]

Good thing SSD prices are falling fast.

 

[DRosencraft]

While there is logic to a part of their argument, I don't buy that it should take that long. Just looking at the numbers you can understand that a couple months of decreased output when you're talking about meeting a quarterly demand that reaches between 145 and 160 million units. Don't recall precisely, but if those plants were already working at full capacity when they went down, and no new plants have been built in the nine or so months since, it isn't unreasonable that they would have a little trouble catching up with demand again.

That being said, prices are already coming down and should continue to do so until they do reach their former pre-flood price level. The only impediment will be demand. As long as demand remains high they won't have any incentive to drop prices any faster. They'll keep putting a new floor in to make more money, milking the continued hesitance of average consumers to jump in with SSDs.

Finally, I would note that this is an IHS report. They're analysts and researchers, which means they're making a best educated guess. They could very well change their mind tomorrow if someone showed them something different. No need to worry too much.

 

[Guest]

They aren't holding the consumer market for ransom. They are milking the IT world where MANY HDDs
needs to be replaced more frequently.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Those of you saying that this isn't accurate due to having observed specific drives coming down in cost are misunderstanding the information given in the article. The *average* price of hard drives is still relatively high compared to the pre-flood situation. Technology improvements has meant that the average hard drive has also increased since the pre-flood times which means that each $ buys more storage on average.

I.e. say in 2011 there were 3 hard drives available - 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB and each were priced $50, $75 and $115. Assuming all three models were bought in equal numbers, the average hard drive size would be 1.5TB and the average hard drive price would be $80. Say in 2012 there have been technological improvements so that the 3 hard drives available now are 1TB, 2TB and 3TB and they're sold at $45, $85 and $110. The average hard drive size would now be 2TB but the average hard drive price would still be $80.

 

[techguy911]

There is no shortage my supplier can sell me as many drives as i need sounds like the hard drive companies are trying to do what oil companies did and drive up prices because people will pay it.
I stopped carrying a large supply due to the fact that prices are being fixed by the companies selling them both seagate and wdc are working together to keep prices up.
Also i have noticed a lack of quality on new drives they are using cheaper parts i have been sending back quite a few more drives than before they seem to die before 1 year is up.

 

[bigdragon]

What shortage? How are the floods from last year still impacting things to this day? Something stinks. I'm going to agree with the accusations of collusion. SSD prices are falling nicely though. I sprung for 2 SATA 3 SSDs and put them in RAID0 several months ago for my Sandy Bridge E build. No problems. Plenty of space for games and files. Not enough space for movies, but an older external HDD from before the floods does just fine for that.

 

[dark_knight33]

It was incredibly stupid and short sighted to let the top 2 HDD manufacturers gobble up the 3rd and 4th. The only worse idea would be to let AT&T buy t-mobile, and VZW buy Sprint. Who voted to allow the mergers? That group needs to be brought before the public and given a collective kick in the nuts.

Oh wait, no... This is "free market capitalism" right?. Where the people in charge are free to abuse the market to take as much of your capital as possible. Crony 'conservatives' and naive 'libertarians' are real the problem.

Obama 2012.