9:56 PM
Diana D'Cruz
Remember, in late 2011, devastating floods hit Thailand, a country which accounts for the hard disk manufacturers since it is the second largest producer. The year 2011 was also marked by a high concentration of the market with Samsung or Hitachi buyouts to leave the place to a duel between American Western Digital and Seagate (Toshiba does well but resistance remains to deal with the trouble these two giants ).
We had been following the adventures of two brands in the first and second quarters of 2012 to fight the world number one. Western Digital is who eventually take the lead through the acquisition of Hitachi after being strongly affected by the floods in Thailand.
Whereas the CEO of Seagate announced a return to normal by the end of 2012, it seems the world of the hard disk is ahead of schedule ... to the detriment of the consumer.
Indeed, according to iSuppli , 524 million are expected to be delivered this year against 502.5 million in 2011. The year 2012 is not complete, it is an estimate but the arrival of Windows 8 and the market for ultrabooks , booming, should allow the 2012 to sign a new record. Two important factors in the world of hard, pushed by falling prices of SSDs and growing market for smartphones and tablets that continue to take share in that of netbooks and laptops.
The estimate goes even further than 2012 because it allows us to see that the HDD market should continue to rise until at least 2016 with 575 million units announced. Information that must be taken however in hindsight as it is difficult to predict in a changing environment. SSD and storage services in the cloud should offer real competition to the last piece of our mechanical computers that has a price / size almost unbeatable, despite rising prices of hard drives.
Prices that do not fall!
This is one of the consequences of the floods in Thailand, the significant increase in the price of hard disk. In any case, the justification announced by the two leaders because we realize that if the return to normal is initiated, any price reduction is the order of the day.
Worse, the two brands have revised down the length of warranty that accompanies their hard drives.
A very bad news for users and companies, but a good way for manufacturers to maximize their margins by the end of the hard drive?
