We Could Run Out of Hard Drives Soon, Says Analyst

[captaincharisma]

[citation][nom]ben850[/nom]Sucks. Maybe the SSD market will accelerate even faster now like darth mentioned.[/citation]

why would you figure that? you think Thailand doesn't have there hand in making SSD hard drives too? SSD will probably be in the same boat with price increases. get ready to pay over 100 bucks for a 30GB SSD drive that anyone will no doubt fill in half a day

 

[gbwatson96]

Somebody asked if all hard drives are made in Thailand. The answer is no. Seagate hard drives are mostly made in China. Was there a flood there, too? I did not see their prices staying the same. Pretty sure they are not paying their working any more money to make hard drives.....

 

[proxy711]

why would you figure that? you think Thailand doesn't have there hand in making SSD hard drives too? SSD will probably be in the same boat with price increases. get ready to pay over 100 bucks for a 30GB SSD drive that anyone will no doubt fill in half a day

Well seeing as SSD prices have remained the same during the time HDDs doubled in price i think its safe to say the floods haven't affected SSD prices.

[citation][nom]gbwatson96[/nom]Somebody asked if all hard drives are made in Thailand. The answer is no. Seagate hard drives are mostly made in China. Was there a flood there, too? I did not see their prices staying the same. Pretty sure they are not paying their working any more money to make hard drives.....[/citation]
seagate gets components from Thailand tho which is why their prices have gone up as well. Edit: and apparently they also build some in Thailand as well.

from an article on the floods :

...Toshiba and Western Digital have announced so far the temporary shut down of their factories in the country, while Seagate Technology said the supply of components to its factories in Thailand was disrupted...

 

[mortsmi7]

Not a good time to build your own computer

 

[enkichild]

I actually did not know about this, but I did notice the huge price hikes. This can only be good for the SSD market, maybe it will drive their prices down faster than it would otherwise. I would expect to pay significantly less money next year for larger sizes, for more people will be looking to upgrade the following year.

 

[Guest]

In the economic sense, SSDs are a substitute for hard drives. Classic micro economics says that it's only a matter of time until SSD prices go up, or slow their natural price falling as a result of the hard drive shortage.

The most interesting question is, how elastic is demand for hard drives? That will determine how crazy prices get.

 

[alyoshka]

We're all overlooking the fact, that keeping in view the flooding in Thailand the stockists and retailers have increased the prices of the HDDs. The company doesn't ship one single drive to each of us. It's actually the retail network that's going to be making all the money. The moment this new spread, nearly all online stores either immediately increased their prices or listed HDDs as out of stock till they could reach a decision on what should be the new price.
Sadly, WD & Seagate would have changed their prices to retailers only after the last shipment of drives before the floods hit Thailand.
Drives produced from that day onwards or shipped from then on are the ones that actually or ethically needed to be higher priced.

 

[mtech23]

The samsung f3 spinpoint 1tb I put in my brothers computer for 60$ is now 160$... the ssd market could really get a leg up if they get on the ball with reducing the production cost and prices

 

[izmanq]

i don't buy this news, just because one country got flood they want to tell me, that we're going to run out HDD ? Is thailand the only country producing hard drive ? :| I think this is just an excuse to drive price over the roof.

 

[enkichild]

[citation][nom]alyoshka[/nom]We're all overlooking the fact, that keeping in view the flooding in Thailand the stockists and retailers have increased the prices of the HDDs. The company doesn't ship one single drive to each of us. It's actually the retail network that's going to be making all the money. The moment this new spread, nearly all online stores either immediately increased their prices or listed HDDs as out of stock till they could reach a decision on what should be the new price.Sadly, WD & Seagate would have changed their prices to retailers only after the last shipment of drives before the floods hit Thailand.Drives produced from that day onwards or shipped from then on are the ones that actually or ethically needed to be higher priced.[/citation]

I disagree because we're talking about computer hardware. Reality is looking like companies like Dell, HP, ect, will only be able to ship computers with SSD's if they run out of HDD's. Now, the reason economics changes in this situation, is because in the computer world every single year hard drives get bigger. So in Q4 of 2012 you're going to have a need for larger SSD's, driving down the price of the existing smaller sized ones. Also, customers experiencing the SSD for the first time due to not having an option to get a HDD, will more than likely no want to go back to a HDD, further increasing SSD demand. More demand = predictable in this cause, which = a better infrastructure for making them, more competition, and therefor lower prices than the previous year, even for larger sizes.

 

[shloader]

Western Digital = Thailand
Hitachi = Thailand, China, Singapore
Seagate = Thailand, China, Possibly still some Singapore production, too.
Toshiba = Thailand, Philippines, China
Samsung = Korea (3.5"), China (All 2.5", Some 3.5")

No more hard drives? Who is this guy? Look... So far the only company I've heard about having issues due to flooding is Western D. Are they the only company that built their production fab on a flood plain? How do we know other manufactures in the area didn't build substantially higher than Sea Level? It's just a equally a possibility that we're being lied to. Wouldn't be the first time this has happened in the tech industry. I remember a RAM production facility that caught fire around the late nineties and all the sudden a stick of 128MB PC133 went from $60 to $170 in a week. Then later it was found out that the particular facility produced modules with tech dating ten plus years back and had no impact on the industry. RAM manufactures just banded together to keep prices up. Then in 2007/2008 they were recently caught doing it again... no tragedy this time.

Now I'm not saying this is 100% Bullsht. I've seen the pictures. But a lot of manufactures started out in other countries before setting up shop in Thailand and still have full production going on in Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, China, so for some Guy to say we might run out is just talking out his arse.

Apparently Seagate is in the news considered to be 'among the lucky' so not all manufacturing in Thailand was smacked, more a problem moving materials and supply. So the PC manufacturers will get their drives. Just won't be Western Digital.

 

[eddieroolz]

In Canada, we are asked to pay $240 for 2TB Caviar Green. I should've snapped a few more up before they shot up...

 

[phyco126]

[citation][nom]Zanny[/nom]I'm planning on doing a build when Ivy Bridge comes out next year, but it looks like I'm going to end up using my 8 year old 2/3 TB drive a little longer.[/citation]

Lawl. The largest HDD was 500 GB back in 2005. Considering that was only 6 years ago, I'm going to say either you made a mistake or you are so full of it people can smell you a world away. 2 TB drives didn't even come out until 2009, released by Western Digital.

 

[droozel]

NOW is the time then SSD have to step up!

 

[bin1127]

When WD said they didn't have a shortage, they didn't see thailand coming.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

I won't be needing a hard drive anytime soon, anyway...as long as prices are OK by summer 2012.

 

[TheRedStorm]

"10 to 60 percent"?
Definitely way more.
A hard drive that was once $55 is now $150.
That's approximately a 172.73% increase!
I chose a bad time to start building my first PC... D=

 

[Chewie]

The first article I read about this said that most companies had about 40% of their components sources from Thailand, but WD had about 60%. So they may be assembled in China, or Malaysia, but the supply chain is all over Asia.

 

[CKKwan]

Guys.... download less pron and there will not have supply issue with HDD anymore.....

 

[ojas]

People! SSD prices have dropped by almost $10 from last week on newegg. Hell, even intel drives are almost the same price as the others...

And i think your retailers are scamming you. Prices have risen in India too, but a 1TB Caviar Black is for about $140 here now, compared to about $85 (by current exchange rates, $95 by pre-august ones) a few months ago.

[citation][nom]Zingam[/nom]Everybody who does not believe the Maya that the world is ending 2012. This is just the beginning. When the prices of HDD are increased by 1000% and nobody is able to get a new HDD when they need it. Its all over for the nerd generation. RIP![/citation]
Hey Dr.Doom, ever wondered what SSDs are for?

 

[dontknownotsure]

damn I should have buy a HDD month ago

 

[dontknownotsure]

if malaysia got flooded would that spell doom for AMD?

 

[halcyon]

...just looking at the title, not having read the article, I see an excuse to raise prices.

 

[danwat1234]

[citation][nom]beayn[/nom]Correction, I just checked again and the 2TB Caviar Black is now $399. That's a 210% increase.[/citation]
Get it on goharddrive as a whitelabel drive for just a bit over $100

 

[danwat1234]

Oh wait, nevermind they've adjusted their prices up