Any ideas when hard drive prices will even out?

[DrJohnZoidberg]

As the title suggests, I am busy running out of space on my current 4 x 2TB raid setup and am looking to get another 4 drives.

Prices are still pretty steep, was hoping by June they will be reasonably priced again but it just seems that prices are not really going anywhere and the whole hdd market has stagnated atm.

I was hoping though to be able to 4 x 3TB on my next setup, but I'm thinking now that's going to be way to expensive. Do you guys think prices for 3TB will have dropped enough by June?

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[ponder]

From a few analyst reports I have read not until the 3rd quarter of this year and then more likely at the end of the 4th quarter.

[NomNom]

From a few analyst reports I have read not until the 3rd quarter of this year and then more likely at the end of the 4th quarter.

+1

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Damn, by the time the prices come down there are going to be affordable 2TB SSD's

[dualmeister]

Hopefully this article is wrong

An investigation into the hard drive industry suggests that, while it is recovering from the flooding in Thailand that shut down much of its production capabilities, prices will remain inflated for the next two or three years.

Although companies are reporting that production will be back on track towards the end of this year, with Western Digital predicting a September return to normalcy, the impact of the floods is likely to be felt for quite some time. The most enthusiastic estimates suggest that pricing will be back on track towards the end of the year, but a new report casts doubt on that prediction.

According to US-based Coughlin Associates, hard drive prices will remain inflated throughout 2014 as a direct result of the Thai floods. This is despite predictions that supplies will return to normal before the year is out.

Initially, Coughlin's report claims, the extra income from the inflated prices will be used by companies to recover losses made as a result of the flooding. After that, however, prices are expected to remain at an inflated level in order to fund additional research and development into next-generation storage systems.

In other words: we'll be so used to paying higher prices for hard drives by 2014, manufacturers will be unwilling to drop the prices even if it could be afforded.

If that's the case, Coughlin's timeline doesn't look too unlikely. As a result of the flooding, Western Digital reported charges and expenses of $199 million with net income of just $145 million. As a result, it will take a year of greatly improved sales simply to earn back the money it has lost.

The news that the hard drive industry is recovering is welcome, of course, but it's certainly sounding like buyers can expect to be waiting a while for prices to drop down to pre-flood levels.

Also see:

Western Digital Corp. today reported revenue of $3.0 billion, hard-drive unit shipments of 44.2 million and net income of $483 million, or $1.96 per share, on a GAAP basis for its third fiscal quarter ended March 30, 2012. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $619 million, or $2.52 per share. Both the GAAP and non-GAAP results include the results of the company's newly acquired HGST subsidiary from the acquisition date of March 8 through the end of March. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $2.3 billion, net income of $146 million, or $0.62 per share, and shipped 49.8 million hard drives. Non-GAAP net income in the year-ago quarter was $156 million, or $0.66 per share.

The company generated $1.2 billion in cash from operations during the March quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of $3.4 billion.
"Our third quarter performance demonstrates the potential of the new Western Digital, with just three and a half weeks of HGST results combined with the standalone WD business," said John Coyne, chief executive officer of Western Digital. "Competing in the marketplace with our separate WD and HGST subsidiaries, we now have the product portfolio, technology resources and the people to fully serve the needs of a significantly expanded customer base and to better address the tremendous growth opportunities in the storage industry in the years ahead.

"I am also pleased to announce today that the recovery activities related to both WD operations and those of our supply chain partners impacted by the Thailand floods have reached a point where we now have the capability to adequately meet anticipated customer demand in the current quarter and beyond," Coyne said.

Source

Seems they making too much money now to worry about dropping prices ...

[TJ99]

Hopefully this article is wrong



Also see:



Source

Seems they making too much money now to worry about dropping prices ...

That's what I've been saying all along, only not in 2014, it's already the case. People are used to hdd's being expensive as fcck already and keep buying them. Why reduce prices if they're not forced to? This earthquake/flood/plague of locusts or whatever it was, was the perfect opportunity to increase prices permanently.

[Archer]

That's what I've been saying all along, only not in 2014, it's already the case. People are used to hdd's being expensive as fcck already and keep buying them. Why reduce prices if they're not forced to? This earthquake/flood/plague of locusts or whatever it was, was the perfect opportunity to increase prices permanently.

I really cant believe that some people think that this will happen in a free market
Go onto sites that actually track price changes, throw in some HDDs and guess what you'll see? Many HDDs have fallen to within 10% of pre flood pricing. That to me is in line with the backlog of demand being cleared
Yes, some drives are still priced sky high, but on the whole the trend is very clear

[dualmeister]

Many HDDs have fallen to within 10% of pre flood pricing.

Please give some local examples?

My source (local pricelists) do not reflect anything near 10% on the popular drives.

16 August 2011


R419 seagate ST1000DL002 barracuda Green , 1TB/1000gb, Sata3G , Green , 5900rpm , 32mb cache - 3 years warranty

R466 Western Digital caviar Green WD10EARX , 1Tb/1000gb , Sata6G , with intellipower ( 5400-7200rpm for powersaveing ) , 64mb cache - 3 years warranty

R575 seagate ST2000DL003 barracuda Green , 2TB/2000gb, Sata6G , Green , 5900rpm , 64mb cache - 2 years warranty

R642 Western Digital caviar Green WD20EARX , 2Tb/2000gb , Sata6G , with intellipower ( 5400-7200rpm for powersaveing ) , 64mb cache - 3 years warranty

2 May 2012

R757 seagate ST1000DL002 barracuda Green , 1TB/1000gb, Sata3G , Green , 5900rpm , 32mb cache - 2 years warranty

R789 Western Digital caviar Green WD10EARX , 1Tb/1000gb , Sata6G , with intellipower ( 5400-7200rpm for powersaveing ) , 64mb cache - 3 years warranty

R969 seagate ST2000DL003 barracuda Green , 2TB/2000gb, Sata6G , Green , 5900rpm , 64mb cache - 1 years warranty

R987 Western Digital caviar Green WD20EARX , 2Tb/2000gb , Sata6G , with intellipower ( 5400-7200rpm for powersaveing ) , 64mb cache - 3 years warranty

[TJ99]

I really cant believe that some people think that this will happen in a free market
Go onto sites that actually track price changes, throw in some HDDs and guess what you'll see? Many HDDs have fallen to within 10% of pre flood pricing. That to me is in line with the backlog of demand being cleared
Yes, some drives are still priced sky high, but on the whole the trend is very clear

Nothing to do with tinfoil hats. I'm not saying some great conspiracy planned it all with the help of the lizard people, just that it was a fortunate event for them. And it's precisely because of a free market economy that prices are still high, as I explained. The demand for drives has proven to be quite inelastic, people keep buying them as before despite the massive price increases. In a free market economy, if there is no real competition due to everyone else's prices being equally high, and your demand hasn't decreased even though prices have increased, you'd just have no reason to lower your prices if you can sell them for more. Why sell 50 drives at R400 each instead of 50 drives at R1000 each? Makes no business sense.

If people stopped buying en masse, they'd have been forced to lower prices again, to the point where volumes vs unit price reached higher return. No point in selling 50 drives at 1000 if only 10 are actually getting sold, where as if they're R400 they might sell 100 drives. Extreme example I know, just used as illustration.

[snugglez64]

That's the problem, people will keep buyin at these high prices. I was also looking at getting some new drives but no, I choose life!

[dualmeister]

Simple solution.

Right click on drive + format.

Now you have an empty drive again and saved R1000

[DJ...]

Next week Thursday...

[rwenzori]

Next week Thursday...

I was told next week Wednesday. Check your dubious sources DJ... .

[DJ...]

I was told next week Wednesday. Check your dubious sources DJ... .

I don't know where you're getting your info from but mine came straight from some horse's mouth. I've been told that's the most reliable mouth there is...

[rwenzori]

I don't know where you're getting your info from but mine came straight from some horse's mouth. I've been told that's the most reliable mouth there is...

This chick told me. She likes Wednesdays, she said: