Seagate: HDD Production Won't Return to Normal For 1 Year

[exfileme]

Hard drive production may be back to pre-flood levels by the end of 2012, claims Seagate's CEO.

Seagate: HDD Production Won't Return to Normal For 1 Year : Read more

 

[phyco126]

So... are retailers paying a 20% increase in price, or just manufacturers? Because if so, that is awfully nice of them to raise the price up themselves by as high as 150% (if not more). If not, well... eh. Might end up cheaper to buy a low end computer just for its hard drive.

 

[zanny]

I was intending to make a new build next summer after Ivy Bridge comes out. I still will, just will use my now 8 year old 640gb hard disk with a new SSD until prices are back down.

 

[Guest]

If all these companies make hard drives in the same place, then is it possible they are all made in same building(s) by the same people? Not really much of a difference in product

 

[runswindows95]

Man, times like this makes me wish I had money so I could have stock up on a few hard drives before this happened. $100 for a 320GB is insane.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]intel4eva[/nom]These assholes may be able to recoup some of their losses via price gouging, but those few companies unaffected or the first to successfully switch suppliers will undoubtedly get this market back to the cutthroat prices we're used to. The first company to stop gouging will likely see a significant increase in market share. I'm seriously hoping that the worst gougers (i.e. Seagate) have their HDD business bite the dust.The massive increase in the usefulness of computers in the last few years have been due to massive increases in storage capacity with lower and lower prices. Without hard drives evolving faster than any other pc components, youtube, gmail, wikipedia and many other innovations would not be possible on the scale seen today. If the jerks at Seagate think that they can use this crisis to recoup their losses they got another thing coming. (the losses are not due to customers, but to their own poor contingency planning).[/citation]

These assholes probably caused this crisis to recoup their losses. Are there any pictures or proof that they're under three feet of water? I wonder...

 

[SoiledBottom]

The aluminum foil hat wearin conspiracy nut job inside me says this is just another push by the government to store my info on there cloud servers........anywhoo back to looking over floor plans for my new place at the camp FEMA in my neighborhood.

 

[sgtopmobile]

THIS IS GREAT! this will force people to atleast consider buying an SSD, that way the SSD market share will rise and we will be one step closer to make SSD mainstream

 

[TheKurrgan]

Anyone ever noticed how whenever a commodity item has its "supply" interrupted by a natural disaster, the price NEVER goes back to the way it was PRIOR to the disaster?
Case in point, Gas prices in the south east.
The day before Katrina hit, the gas prices there where around 1.00 - 1.60 cheaper than in California (My folks live in Georgia so I get the info)
They where consistently this way for about 12 years, then after Katrina hit and the out right thievery stopped, the leveled off at around the same national average.
The Oil companies blamed the problems at the refineries, however those things where fixed within just a few months.. yet the prices never went back to the way they where...
Interesting huh? Hope we don't see the same thing here.. could be a way to increase margins..

 

[zhihao50]

[citation][nom]thekurrgan[/nom]Anyone ever noticed how whenever a commodity item has its "supply" interrupted by a natural disaster, the price NEVER goes back to the way it was PRIOR to the disaster?.[/citation]

Fortunately electronic industry is the exception where price going down is the rule.

 

[leandrodafontoura]

Perhaps this improves SSD sales

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]sgtopmobile[/nom]THIS IS GREAT! this will force people to atleast consider buying an SSD, that way the SSD market share will rise and we will be one step closer to make SSD mainstream[/citation]
[citation][nom]leandrodafontoura[/nom]Perhaps this improves SSD sales[/citation]

Perhaps. But the damage that the smaller businesses with needs for large storage will take is too much. Some of them can barely include a 1TB (OLD price) in their budget, forget SSDs and new prices... Seagate and others WILL lower their prices or the demand will fall beyond what they can earn by increasing the price.

 

[dimar]

[citation][nom]sgtopmobile[/nom]THIS IS GREAT! this will force people to atleast consider buying an SSD, that way the SSD market share will rise and we will be one step closer to make SSD mainstream[/citation]

And the next thing you know, flash chip factory will be rocked by a hurricane!

 

[hetneo]

[citation][nom]crazypcman[/nom]If all these companies make hard drives in the same place, then is it possible they are all made in same building(s) by the same people? Not really much of a difference in product[/citation]
Some parts like platters and controllers are made by very small number of factories.

 

[spentshells]

The drive I bought for $29 is now $99 months later. Im going to buy a high end SSD.
This will keep me from Hoarding. I feel this will be good for me.
When DVD-R and Blueray disks go up then I will agree we are being hooped.

 

[drapacioli]

You know who's going to suffer here? The consumer that has their hard drive go at a time when they can't afford the original price, let alone a price hike of 100-150%. That's where it really hurts.

 

[drwho1]

Two Words: Black Friday

 

[dco]

pushing average hard drive prices up by 20-percent

20% I could live with. All HDD's available to me have seen a 230% markup on prices from last month and are steadily increasing each week.

 

[dormantreign]

I got lucky. I just picked up 14TB of hard drives over the summer and just now a blu ray burner, ill wait a year or two before buying another hard drive.

 

[theuniquegamer]

So that means the price will keep rising till the end of summer 2012. In the local stores prices have been already doubled. They are charging almost $80-100 for 500gb. If the ssd price will become a little lower like $1/gb then most of the buyers will buy 128gb or 256gb ssds instead of Hdds.

 

[de5_Roy]

i was holdinh off buying some hdds... i am so !@#$ed now. hdd prices have nearly doubled T_T damn you seagate!
my condolences to thailand flood victims.

 

[jiyung]

Dayum. Good thing I bought my 1TB WD Black 1 week before the floor ^^

 

[kyee7k]

Still waiting for the hybrid drives WD has been evaluating since January of 2011.

 

[extremepcs]

"The shortage is not entirely bad news for the disk-drive business, especially for those companies whose facilities were not damaged, such as Seagate, which has a factory high and dry on a plateau in northeastern Thailand. Mr. Monroe said price increases will help lift industry profit margin to about 30 percent from about 20 percent before the floods."

 

[cod50]

"The shortage is not entirely bad news for the disk-drive business, especially for those companies whose facilities were not damaged, such as Seagate, which has a factory high and dry on a plateau in northeastern Thailand. Mr. Monroe said price increases will help lift industry profit margin to about 30 percent from about 20 percent before the floods." [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/business/global/07iht-floods07.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all]

just saw that in a link posted above. Interesting; maybe a part they buy from a 3rd party is still unavailable.