Higher Hard Drive Prices Are the New Normal

[Bradwheat]

I just noticed this article on Slashdot:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/05/25/169203/higher-hard-drive-prices-are-the-new-normal?utm_source=feedburnerGoogle+Feedfetcher&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

 

A bit depressing... 

[opentoe]

It is called GREED.

 

The industry used the floods that took down the hard drive companies as a point to keep prices high. It is just like gasoline prices in the US. For no real reason prices went from a comfy $1.99-$2.00 a gallon all the way up to $4.00 gallon. Now, the industry  saw this and jumped on the greed band wagon. Instead of lowering prices back to where they originally were they only dropped a small percentage. So the people that don't understand what happened now think $3.85 or whatever is a cheap price! People have very short term memory. Since they aren't thinking about that $2.00 price anymore and are fixed on that scarey $4.00 price, $3.50 sounds pretty good to them, hence no complaints. Basic run of the mill greed.

 

 

[jeff.lebowski]

Whoa:

 

http://camelegg.com/product/N82E16822136891

[opentoe]

That chart just reinforces what I said. They "should" have dropped back down to the original prices, but since greed motivates the dity CEO's, they just dropped enough to where consumers felt was a good price.

[Chris Pollard]

Combination of margins being too slm before and less competition now.  Pretty obvious they wouldn't go back to the old pricesin a hurry (if ever).

[JackBauer]

I think what will happen is that with some time the 4TB drives will drop in price to come closer to the 3TB prices, thus getting the cost per GB down to what the 2TB's were before the floods.

 

Granted this might take 6+ months

[GFOviedo]

This is the reason why I stopped ripping my media.  I just can't imaging paying over $100 dollars for 2TB drives anymore.  I'll wait for another year if I have to lol.

[opentoe]

It will soon be cheaper to just buy Blu-Rays/DVD and just not rip them.

 

 

[darkside40]

It get's me sick when i see that i bought mal last 2TB 5K3000 last August for 56€ and nowadays i have to pay 113€ for the same HDD.

 

I really wish i have had bought two of these Baby's back in the days, because in case of a HDD fail it will get expensive.

[mbryanr]

It will soon be cheaper to just buy Blu-Rays/DVD and just not rip them.

 

Considering I can get 80 Blu-Ray rips ~25GB each on a 2TB drive...the price of a BD disk will have to be <$2 ea.

[Johnm]

this makes me sad http://camelegg.com/product/N82E16822145493?locale=US

I just used my last $110 3TB Hitachi today... now i have craptastic Seagates to fill in the rest of my server...

[mcai3db3]

The prices will find their way back down again, it just is gonna take a while. Right now they're loving the profits, but soon enough one manufacturer will undercut another and prices will have to drop to stay competitive.

 

Though, it would not shock me if we're looking at a year or more before that happens.

[neilt0]

You can not have it both ways. If the hard drive business is so unprofitable that every manufacturer bar two goes out of business, it should not be a surprise that the remaining companies want to make some profit.

 

Every business has to make a profit. It's not "profiteering" or "ripping you off" if the margins are 10 or 20%.

 

Don't get angry at the HD mfrs, get angry at jewellers and clothes retailers with their 50%+ margins (= 100 to 200% markup).

 

Having run a computer retail business, I know how little profit there is in computer products. It's so little that it's putting all sorts of computer related business to the wall.

Mine went out of business in 2009, after the global economic meltdown, but even before that, our margins were razor thin.

 

Personally, I haven't bought a drive since the floods, and the only ones I've looked at are the 4TB drives when I could get one for about £220. That was (and still is) a pretty good deal, when you take in to account the "port cost" of a 6-drive server.

 

I actually took advantage of the drive prices and sold about 6 of my smaller drives -- 300GB to 1TB in size. I got a good deal of money for them.

[opentoe]

The prices will find their way back down again, it just is gonna take a while. Right now they're loving the profits, but soon enough one manufacturer will undercut another and prices will have to drop to stay competitive.

 

Though, it would not shock me if we're looking at a year or more before that happens.

 

Dirty CEO's are the culprit. Bigger bonus for themselves. That's just how it works with big business. Most deals are drawn out on a golf course. Not some meeting at a table.