Hard Drive Prices Slide As Thai Flood Aftermath Subsides

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Hard Drive Prices Slide As Thai Flood Aftermath Subsides

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 20, 2011 @07:17PM from the dollars-and-bytes dept.

New submitter yeszomgpony writes "For the first time since the Thailand flooding, hard drive prices are finally starting to decrease. The price jump was kicked off in October when drive inventory levels plummeted 90% in less than a week. From the article: 'Over the past few weeks, hard drive prices have leveled off and have begun to drop slowly, according to Dynamite's data. "For first time, less than week after Western Digital's first [fabrication plant] went back on line, drive inventory began increasing at both distributors and ecommerce sites, and index prices began coming down a little too," Kubicki said. IDC has predicted that hard disk drive supply shortages in the wake of Thailand flooding would affect consumers, computer system manufacturers and corporate IT shops into 2013.'"

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its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 19:18 · Score: -1, Flamebait

there is no shortage
1. Re:its bullshit by bemymonkey · 2011-12-20 19:27 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Sure seems like there's a shortage... I asked around whether anyone needed a few of my old ass hard drives on one of the local (German) hardware forums, and received a trade of a slightly castrated Core 2 Duo, 4 gigs of RAM and an ASUS mainboard for just a 500gig 3.5" SATA drive and an 80gigger notebook drive... both well used, of course. A few weeks ago, this wouldn't have been possible, with the hard drives worth pennies and the other hardware worth 40-50€.
  Glad to hear the shortage is coming to an end though... I really need to upgrade my NAS. Last time I did that, 1TB drives were in the sweet spot... getting a bit full.
2. Re:its bullshit by jhoegl · 2011-12-20 19:53 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Wait wait wait... so you are telling me
  Event...
  Inflate fears based on event...
  ????
  Profit
  
  Holy shit... I could make billions! Quick, someone turn off a pipeline somewhere....
3. Re:its bullshit by bemymonkey · 2011-12-20 20:00 · Score: 1
  
  OK, fine - I'll call it a price hike instead of a shortage and we're good again ;)
4. Re:its bullshit by courcoul · 2011-12-20 20:03 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Goes to prove yet again how the "free market", that weird beast so idolized by economists, is such a fickle creature. Cause after over several months underwater, there is NO way you are gonna get a clean room facility up to snuff & speed in a matter of days. Of course, now that the excuse is over, all the hoarding speculators are trembling in fear of getting stuck with their huge stockpile and will start to desperately flood the market.
5. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 20:12 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Goes to prove yet again how the "free market", that weird beast so idolized by economists, is such a fickle creature. Cause after over several months underwater, there is NO way you are gonna get a clean room facility up to snuff & speed in a matter of days. Of course, now that the excuse is over, all the hoarding speculators are trembling in fear of getting stuck with their huge stockpile and will start to desperately flood the market.
  So in other words, the free market will function in exactly the way it's supposed to
6. Re:its bullshit by sjames · 2011-12-20 20:44 · Score: 1
  
  Ideally there would be no boom or bust. Those are caused because perfectly rational actors exist only in economic theory. Same for perfect information.
7. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 21:17 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Ideally nothing. To suggest that the free market has an ideal or purpose or positive outcome short or long term is as foolish as to suggest that intelligent design underlies evolution and guides it benevolently.
  The free market, for whatever necessarily restricted implementation of free market exists today, is a game which you win if you play well. Other people may benefit, or they may be unaffected, or they may have their enjoyment of life severely damaged. The only thing we can guarantee is that the winners usually tell everyone else that their win has been for everyone else's good too.
8. Re:its bullshit by tbird81 · 2011-12-20 21:24 · Score: 2
  
  Great. We should get the government to control prices. I can't see how that could go wrong.
9. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 23:21 · Score: 0
  
  So in other words, the free market will function in exactly the way it's supposed to
  No, the free market concept is suppost to regulate price by supply and demand, not by perceived supply and estimated demand.
  The free market model also assumes the number of suppliers to be large. With the number of HDD producers being less than 20 supply can be tightly regulated and price is determined by demand only.
  With the current trend of a few large companies controlling the market it is getting harder and harder to find markets where the free market model still applies.
10. Re:its bullshit by Lumpy · 2011-12-20 23:28 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  But only for the oooh shiny crowd. I simply held off buying any hard drives. Would I have liked to expand capacity? yes. Would I have liked to buy 12 new machines? yes.
  Did I kill people or lose money because I did not? no.
  Honestly, the price jump was only because of idiots that rushed out and bought drives when they heard of a possible "shortage" and thus created a shortage.
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
11. Re:its bullshit by jones_supa · 2011-12-20 23:44 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Cause after over several months underwater, there is NO way you are gonna get a clean room facility up to snuff & speed in a matter of days.
  Not days. Restoring the WD factory took about 6 weeks. It's still a bit spurious, I'll give you that.
12. Re:its bullshit by shentino · 2011-12-20 23:52 · Score: 1
  
  Even perfectly rational actors cannot predict the future.
13. Re:its bullshit by The+Grim+Reefer · 2011-12-21 00:14 · Score: 1
  
  Cause after over several months underwater, there is NO way you are gonna get a clean room facility up to snuff & speed in a matter of days.
  Were the actual plants flooded? Or was it a lack of power(impassable roads, etc.) due to the flooding that caused the shutdown?
14. Re:its bullshit by zippthorne · 2011-12-21 00:34 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  And that's what it did. Initially, the demand curve didn't shift, but the supply took a huge hit. The price increase allowed the market to adjust, and eventually (quite quickly, apparently) subsided as capacity has been (partially at least) recovered (perhaps using existing capacity with reduced QC, as evidenced by the warranty cut...) and substitute products have been sought (some products may be forgoing HDs in favor of much smaller but still adequate SSDs, for instance).
  This is exactly how the market is supposed to work. It's not supposed to be constantly at some steady-state "ideal" price. That's how planned economies work, and results in either or both of shortages and waste.
  The only evidence of anything like market failure is the warranty cut, that cut across all manufacturers. One would've expected someone to hold out and become the "quality" producer. But even that is a stretch as the warranties were not cut across all product lines for all manufacturers.
  
  --
  Can you be Even More Awesome?!
15. Re:its bullshit by zippthorne · 2011-12-21 00:35 · Score: 1
  
  One would assume that at least some plants were flooded, or their owners would not have gone through the expense of hiring dive teams to recover the equipment...
  
  --
  Can you be Even More Awesome?!
16. Re:its bullshit by Anne+Thwacks · 2011-12-21 00:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If you had attended advanced maths classes, you would know that the price is set partly by supply vs demand, and partly by the rate of change of supply and demand - this makes it a differential equation in time, and oscillation is inevitable once the rate of change approaches the actual value. However, most economists are not numerate, in the sense of understanding numbers - they may be able to add and subtract, and in some cases, even multiply and divide, but knowning how numbers behave in a complex plane? No chance.
  So - How can you stop boom and bust - the simplest way is to flood the market, and not let anyone know! Good luck with that strategy.
  Alternatively, you can try lying a lot, and hoping no one notices (its called communism). Doesn't work very well in practice.
  
  --
  Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
17. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 00:40 · Score: 0
  
  Bought a WD2002FAEX (Caviar Black, 2GB, 5 years warranty) for 126 EUR two months before the flooding happened. Tho weeks after the flooding the price went up to 199 EUR. Later on it inceased even more: 299 EUR (should have invested my money in harddrives instead of secure time deposites with low interest rates :-). Just checked a major retailer: 195 EUR.
  BTW: Got some old SCSI 2 and 9 GBers. Might be a bargain :-)
18. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 01:52 · Score: 0
  
  "Game" is actually quite correct. You get props for not saying something really stupid, something like 'the study of the free market is a science, its actors always behaving in a mathematically definable manner".
19. Re:its bullshit by JDG1980 · 2011-12-21 02:09 · Score: 2
  
  Were the actual plants flooded? Or was it a lack of power(impassable roads, etc.) due to the flooding that caused the shutdown?
  Based on the photo in this NYT article it certainly looks like the WD buildings themselves were flooded.
20. Re:its bullshit by Gr8Apes · 2011-12-21 02:22 · Score: 1
  
  A million lemmings can't be wrong.
  But they can be flat!
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
21. Re:its bullshit by lordofthechia · 2011-12-21 02:44 · Score: 1
  
  Honestly, the price jump was only because of idiots that rushed out and bought drives when they heard of a possible "shortage" and thus created a shortage.
  Or you know, smart people who knew they had a need for certain drives for their home or business use through the next 6-8 months and realized they should fulfill their needs before retailers used the flood to hike prices.
  Kinda like what happened in that (Taiwan I believe) earthquake in the 90s when RAM prices went through the roof.
  
  --
  Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
22. Re:its bullshit by jedidiah · 2011-12-21 02:59 · Score: 1
  
  They can when the future is obvious to anyone with more than one functioning brain cell. People used to get burned as witches for this sort of thing. Now you just get dirty looks from your neighbors.
  Jacked up prices castrate demand on a luxury good. Any group of Econ 101 students could have predicted that.
  Elastic demand is elastic.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
23. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 03:57 · Score: 0
  
  And that's what it did. Initially, the demand curve didn't shift, but the supply took a huge hit.
  If you don't just read the last post but actually follow the discussion you will see that the argument is that it is unlikely that actual production (That is real supply.) have started to recover and that the shift we see in price is not because of any actual change in supply but because the supplier indicates that there will be a change in supply.
  And no, this is not "exactly" how the market is supposed to work. In an ideal market the number of suppliers are near infinite and the price to end consumer is close to production cost. In a market that works like it is supposed to a local disaster will not have global consequences.
24. Re:its bullshit by SuperQ · 2011-12-21 04:12 · Score: 1
  
  Yup, or OEMs (Dell, HP, IBM, Acer, etc) who wanted to keep selling PCs for the same price through the months it would take to recover the supply side. They did this to avoid getting "left behind" and lose out on sales to each other due to having to increase their overall system cost due to drive prices. The truth is that home-built PCs are a tiny tiny fraction of the overall market and they are the ones who got left behind because they have no representative supply chain manager thinking about these kinds of things.
25. Re:its bullshit by Kjella · 2011-12-21 04:44 · Score: 2
  
  Honestly, the price jump was only because of idiots that rushed out and bought drives when they heard of a possible "shortage" and thus created a shortage.
  Sure, because the "shortage" is just a con made by wall street. Are you part of the occupy movement or something? Of course there is a rush of people overreacting too, but it's not like the floods down in Thailand were imaginary. HDD production is way down and with long term contracts with OEMs taking priority the rest of the market was going to get squeezed badly. Everybody that's looked at a price-quantity curve knows that when supply goes way down like that the prices go up. Yes, people that panic buy to be on the safe side amplify it but there wasn't that much in the channel to raid before webshops figured it was a rush and raised prices. By the time "everyone" knows a shortage is coming it's too late to get a good deal already.
  
  --
  Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
26. Re:its bullshit by mcgrew · 2011-12-21 06:55 · Score: 1
  
  I simply held off buying any hard drives.
  Same here, even though the drive in my main box has been trying to die for months (just went fully titsup over the weekend). I'll still wait, I have a couple of old, small spares that will do until production and prices are normal again.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
27. Re:its bullshit by Grishnakh · 2011-12-21 07:35 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  With the current trend of a few large companies controlling the market it is getting harder and harder to find markets where the free market model still applies.
  This isn't a current trend, it's always been the trend: in any market, as the market matures, the number of suppliers shrinks through attrition and mergers, until there's only a handful of really big companies controlling the whole market. Just look at the automotive market for example: in the USA alone, there used to be dozens of car makers in the early 20th Century, but by 1970 it had shrunk down to 4 main players; it only opened up again when more foreign makers entered the market, namely the Japanese.
  Appliances: there's only 3 or so American appliance makers (Whirlpool, GE, Maytag), although recently we've gotten more foreign brands (Samsung, LG, Bosch).
  This is just the natural order of things: as a market matures, the players buy each other out or go out of business, until you're left with a few large competitors. Sometimes a monopoly results (or close, with one player being the dominant competitor with a large majority of the marketshare). This is why government regulation is necessary at this stage, to "keep the playing field level" and prevent entrenched players from keeping newer, smaller competitors out of the market the way they did with Tucker cars.
  Allowing a free market with little or no regulation is great when a market is immature and there's lots of players and competition (and there's few or no health or safety issues to worry about, like with food); but after a while it becomes necessary or else you get a situation like Microsoft circa 2000, bullying everyone and stifling innovation.
28. Re:its bullshit by Grishnakh · 2011-12-21 07:41 · Score: 2
  
  Government should almost never control prices, except in the case of utility monopolies for instance. However, government's responsibility is to provide regulation such that, in most markets (utilities being an obvious exception), no monopoly ever develops, and a healthy number of competitors always exists. The government can do this by preventing mergers. The more competitors there are in a market, the freer that market is, and the better off consumers are (within reason of course, there's a law of diminishing returns here--3 competitors is much better than 2, 5 is better than 3, 10 is better than 5, but 1000 isn't much better than 100, if at all).
  It's too bad that only the European governments want to bother providing proper regulation these days, as Americans seem to be perfectly happy with abusive monopolies and lack of consumer choice.
29. Re:its bullshit by Grishnakh · 2011-12-21 07:43 · Score: 1
  
  This brings up the question, why did they move their operations to a place where flooding is a problem?
30. Re:its bullshit by publiclurker · 2011-12-21 07:59 · Score: 1
  
  Because it was cheap. I'm sure the people who saved the money by placing their plants there got nice bonuses too.
31. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 08:02 · Score: 0
  
  Possible shortage announced, idiots go rushing to create a REAL shortage.
  Hello Dell buys up more drives than they need to try and short the competition. That is what he said, you are too retarded to read English and understand that
  Or are you one of the 1% that was born without a brain. I'm betting that is the case.
32. Re:its bullshit by DarthVain · 2011-12-21 08:44 · Score: 1
  
  If a bad choice of words.
33. Re:its bullshit by sjames · 2011-12-21 08:56 · Score: 1
  
  Game theory does have ideal outcomes when the actors play perfectly.
  Of course, in the case of economy and statecraft, the ideal solution is to actually make an economy that serves the people, or if unable to do so (it may be we just don't know enough to do such a thing), at least admit that we don't know rather than trying to back justify the current non-solution.
34. Re:its bullshit by mjwx · 2011-12-21 18:33 · Score: 1
  
  Goes to prove yet again how the "free market", that weird beast so idolized by economists, is such a fickle creature. Cause after over several months underwater, there is NO way you are gonna get a clean room facility up to snuff & speed in a matter of days. Of course, now that the excuse is over, all the hoarding speculators are trembling in fear of getting stuck with their huge stockpile and will start to desperately flood the market.
  So in other words, the free market will function in exactly the way it's supposed to
  This isn't the free market, this is the boom/bust cycle that has caused so much pain of late.
  
  The free market is a dearly held delusion of those who dont understand that power concentrates and without resistance it concentrates in one place..
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
35. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 23:01 · Score: 0
  
  In the U S of A it's called "The Enron Effect" because Enron traders had their phone calls to power plants (owned by Enron...of course) recorded. Those recordings showed Enron traders asking and sometimes telling power plants when to go "offline" so electric power markets in California could be manipulated as a way of making money.
36. Re:its bullshit by Phoghat · 2011-12-22 00:06 · Score: 1
  
  Glad to hear the shortage is coming to an end though... I really need to upgrade my NAS.
  Mr Phong is also glad to see shortage end as he needs to buy rice to feed his family
  
  --
  Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
37. Re:its bullshit by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-22 08:33 · Score: 0
  
  As soon as you have government regulating who should be allowed monopolies and who should not it's no longer capitalism or free markets is it! Free means free, not 'governed' or 'regulated'.
  This is the short coming of a capitalist/free market system - it's like poker, in the end the guy with the largest pile can always out buy everyone else - especially if he happens to be the bank (the banks own much of the biggest US corporations).
  In the end it tends towards what we call communism; where the banks and the state and the corporations are all owned by the same entities. Capitalism, left unregulated becomes communism - ever wondered why the Govt makes so many rulings that benefit the few rather than the many - here's your answer! In the US it's becoming starkly obvious: what government 'for and by the people' would vote to give all it has (while it's in a huge amount of debt to the banks) to the banks and not have it count against the debt? Wake Up!
  The federal reserve banks have .org domains, not .gov. The Board has a .gov but it doesn't own the banks, which are private, it just oversees them - in the best interest of the banks, not the best interests of the US. Just ask the Chairman of the United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology - Ron Paul - who knows a thing or two about all this! You know what you've also go the chance to make him the POTUS - that would be a 'change' voting in someone who knows something about money and banking - which as the saying goes, makes the world go round.
38. Re:its bullshit by themusicgod1 · 2011-12-26 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  I am not thai, but my thai peers have suggested that this is because when the decision was made, there was a competent government in power that could be trusted to operate the flood control mechanisms in that country properly. There was an election fairly recently and the government which was elected had other concerns - hence what happened.
  
  --
  GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
39. Re:its bullshit by Grishnakh · 2011-12-26 07:39 · Score: 1
  
  Wow, that kinda sounds like the USA... decades ago, we had a somewhat competent government in power that could be trusted to do what it could to handle floods and other natural disasters (though obviously technology was a little more limited back then), and now we've happily elected a government that can't handle a hurricane in a part of the country that frequently experiences hurricanes.
Prices and Warranty by mehrotra.akash · 2011-12-20 19:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

Both are sliding
1. Re:Prices and Warranty by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 19:44 · Score: -1
  
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2. Re:Prices and Warranty by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 21:50 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  This is just a guess, but I think that they were so frantically trying to get their production lines back up that they decided to cut some quality-control corners, and that's why they reduced the warranty period. Logically (if true), it means that nobody should buy a drive until the manufacturers get it (back on line) done right, and the warranty periods go up again (since we know they can do better).
3. Re:Prices and Warranty by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 01:01 · Score: 1
  
  no, they're screwing the customers out of warranty terms in order to help cover revenue lost (that's their excuse anyway.... even though the much higher prices should be more than making up for it)
4. Re:Prices and Warranty by Luckyo · 2011-12-21 01:38 · Score: 2
  
  While most likely true, the problem is that "warranty going back up" is going to be an issue in current dupoly.
  Also the fact that hard drives being actually unreliable will likely impact economy, as many people now rely on their work computer and laptop for some very important data while being very lax with backups. It was sorta workable before provided you switched to a new computer quickly enough, but if your statement about quality is true, it may not be enough any more. And the issue may actually be big enough to impact economy beyond hard drives and computer manufacturing.
5. Re:Prices and Warranty by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 03:58 · Score: 0
  
  No, they have converted the old hard disk factories to making replica Hermes handbags.
6. Re:Prices and Warranty by bill_mcgonigle · 2011-12-21 05:01 · Score: 1
  
  Both are sliding
  If warranties are sliding, costs are *rising*.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
7. Re:Prices and Warranty by jones_supa · 2011-12-21 06:25 · Score: 1
  
  The "buy replica xyz" crap is actually a spam type to arrive quite late to Slashdot. In the old days it was mostly just GNAA trolls and not much any commercial ads.
8. Re:Prices and Warranty by Grishnakh · 2011-12-21 07:45 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know, but I wonder if they were locked into lower prices for certain models because of pre-existing contracts with big OEMs? If so, this would definitely hurt their revenue and make them want to raise prices wherever possible to make up for it.
9. Re:Prices and Warranty by cynyr · 2011-12-21 14:18 · Score: 1
  
  Well then they will learn. Lots of us are moving to having mixed vendor mix lot raid arrays at home for just this reason.
  
  --
  All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
10. Re:Prices and Warranty by cthulhu11 · 2011-12-21 19:34 · Score: 1
  
  Expecting the warranty length to go back up is like expecting the price of gasoline to drop below $3/gal. I'm curious, though, if the reduction in duration applies to "enterprise" models as well as consumer-oriented SATA. Even without a warranty change, I'd be hesitant to buy disks from the first few months of resumed production, just out of paranoia that subtle fallout from the flood might remain -- microscopic dirt, equipment calibration, etc. Even six months from now, there will be some nagging doubt, as I wouldn't expect stock to be FIFO, ie., a unit bought six months from now isn't necessarily going to have been made five months from now.
11. Re:Prices and Warranty by Luckyo · 2011-12-21 23:23 · Score: 1
  
  Raid isn't really workable in laptops for power and format factor reasons, which is what work computers are for many if not most of the people in important positions.
Ah, but will I see these drops? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 19:23 · Score: 0

Somehow I doubt I'll be seeing this drop roll on down to myself and others anytime soon...
Be on the lookout for quality issues. by Tamran · 2011-12-20 19:28 · Score: 5, Informative

This often happens when a process goes off line for a time. It also normally works itself out after a few months.
I'll be waiting a few months myself.
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just in time by lister+king+of+smeg · 2011-12-20 19:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

hmmn seems conveniently timed to be more expensive while people are buying Christmas presents and they go back to regular pricing after the Xmas shopping rush, no there is no taking advantage disaster at all here to price gouge the consumer

--
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
1. Re:just in time by BlueCoder · 2011-12-20 20:06 · Score: 2
  
  Weather control is a bitch.
  What is surprising is that prices have come down this quickly. My only guess is that people were hording. Or WD actually was hording back inventory and understating it because they didn't know how long it would take to get their factories running again and they had to be sure they could cover their contracted orders.
  Also was an opportunity for WD to buy back some of their stock.
  But they did lost money. On the other hand we can look forward to cheaper prices and greater capacities since they must have retooled with the latest tech. Their assembly lines are not tuned for efficient production so Quality Assurance is under pressure to catch the extra faulty units. But since they are using the next gen manufacturing it should not be all that difficult to produce sufficient quantities of drives affordability in the short term.
2. Re:just in time by seibed · 2011-12-21 05:14 · Score: 2
  
  Huh? they're making huge profits, they didn't 'lost money'
  and no one has re-tooled anything yet, they've cleared some factories of water and gotten some equipment that wasn't to damaged working again.
excel by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 19:33 · Score: 0

Nice mouse hover text on the chart...
1. Re:excel by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 19:42 · Score: 0
  
  But the inventories didn't go down, the water went up.
Quality Control? by divide+overflow · 2011-12-20 19:38 · Score: 4, Insightful

I think I'll wait a while until the processing hardware is working perfectly, the power is stable, the factory is fully purged of airborne particulates, etc. Until then I'll let someone else do the QC testing.
1. Re:Quality Control? by dexotaku · 2011-12-20 20:08 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  ...and for everyone who doesn't feel like waiting, there's the decreased warranties.
Propaganda slides as inventories float by Bob_Who · 2011-12-20 20:06 · Score: 1

The market will correct itself after the hype wears off consumer consciousness. Now they just are overpriced inventory like before speculation stimulated sales squeezed the flow down stream of actual flood effects. Take me to the River...
I want hard drives by BlueCoder · 2011-12-20 20:10 · Score: 1

The WD20EARS seem to be back around $100.
And I'm sure that others physiologically have the same urge I do.
I've been putting off upgrading my ZFS pool long enough.
1. Re:I want hard drives by mark_elf · 2011-12-20 20:30 · Score: 2
  
  It does show up on google at around $100 (CDW). When you click on the link it's really $174. Newegg is currently $162. Think I'll wait awhile.
2. Re:I want hard drives by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 04:06 · Score: 0
  
  It's cheaper to buy a WD external USB drive and pitch the enclosure. For the same money, you can get the next .5TB up.
3. Re:I want hard drives by mcgrew · 2011-12-21 04:10 · Score: 1
  
  I just did a quick google, prices on that drive are all over the map, $94 to almost $200.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
4. Re:I want hard drives by mjwx · 2011-12-21 18:22 · Score: 1
  
  And I'm sure that others physiologically have the same urge I do.
  I've been putting off upgrading my ZFS pool long enough.
  When I think "Thailand" and "Urges" my ZFS pool is not the first thing that comes to mind.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Where else do our parts come from? by identity0 · 2011-12-20 20:15 · Score: 5, Interesting

Someone should do a article or investigation into all the obscure places our hardware comes from, especially concentrations where most of one type comes from a small area.
We only ever seem to hear about these places when something goes wrong.
Remember that time in the '90s when a Taiwanese RAM factory caught fire, and it turned out to be a big chunk of world RAM output? Sent prices spiking for a while.
Conversely, it's surprising how little the Japanese tsunami affected the tech world. I guess their industries were concentrated further south.
1. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by mark_elf · 2011-12-20 20:31 · Score: 1
  
  Good idea. Get started!
2. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2011-12-20 20:31 · Score: 2
  
  Conversely, it's surprising how little the Japanese tsunami affected the tech world. I guess their industries were concentrated further south.
  Actually, the tsunami appears to have had a significant impact on both Nikon's and Canon's release schedules - outside of point-and-shoots anyway.
  
  --
  #DeleteChrome
3. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by DerekLyons · 2011-12-20 20:43 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Conversely, it's surprising how little the Japanese tsunami affected the tech world. I guess their industries were concentrated further south.
  The camera world, OTOH, was hit pretty heavily by the tsunami. All of the big manufacturers lost significant chunks of their production capacity, and the effects are still being felt in terms of shortages, delays in introducing new models, etc...
4. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 20:45 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  The SonyEricsson Xperia Pro phone was seriously delayed by the tsunami. Demoed at CES in January, release was planned for mid-April originally, but it hit the shelves worldwide in October!
5. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by tloh · 2011-12-20 20:48 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Conversely, it's surprising how little the Japanese tsunami affected the tech world. I guess their industries were concentrated further south.
  I seem to recall Japanese auto makers had a tough time dealing with the earthquake/tsunami. Not only were their latest ready-to-ship inventory flooded out, substantial portions of their supply chain for parts and equipment were similarly impacted by quake/flood damage. Given how much electronics are in automobiles these days, it kind of counts doesn't it? Granted, a lot of the tech that goes into cars are not exclusive to the auto industry.
  
  --
  Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
6. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Xest · 2011-12-20 21:15 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah I never really understood why all these sensitive factories are built in earthquake and flood zones.
  Why don't they build them over here in the UK, where the worst we get is a bit of bad snow every 30 years, a bit of wind that sometimes knocks a few leaves of the trees, or if you're really stupid, a wet carpet because you bought a has that was built on a flood plane.
7. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 21:28 · Score: 1
  
  The Sony professional range of video cameras and accessories were very badly hit by the tsuanami. Supplies of camera and proprietary memory dried up.
8. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by qualityassurancedept · 2011-12-20 21:54 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Because in the UK they have LAWS that are enforced by professional stewards of the public good... and that makes for a crappy business environment where people actually have rights and pay taxes and expect decent treatment etc etc. The truly wonderful thing about building facilities in far away places is that all those things that most people in the West take for granted are merely optional and every legal problem can be solved by means of bribes.
  
  --
  if your life is such a big joke then why should I care?
9. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by thegarbz · 2011-12-20 22:02 · Score: 1
  
  Only Nikon's higher end equipment is manufactured in Japan, the rest is in Thailand. This crops up quite frequently in the Nikon vs Canon flamewars as if it actually matters.
10. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Xest · 2011-12-20 22:08 · Score: 1
  
  But does the cost of natural disasters really not outweigh the extra hassle of having to adhere to some degree of social standard?
  Or do they just write it off with their insurers? Surely the cost of insuring such factories in such places must be getting prohibitive though?
11. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by makomk · 2011-12-20 23:46 · Score: 1
  
  Because in the UK they have LAWS that are enforced by professional stewards of the public good... and that makes for a crappy business environment where people actually have rights and pay taxes and expect decent treatment etc etc.
  Don't worry, I'm sure our current government will do away with all that soon enough.
12. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 23:57 · Score: 0
  
  This is why
13. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by antifoidulus · 2011-12-21 00:11 · Score: 1
  
  CONSUMER tech wasn't necessarily affected( and as others point out automotive and camera production was adversely affected), as the only PC parts still produced in Japan are a small % of hard disks, a significant though not overwhelming amount of SSDs, and some batteries and screens for notebooks. However to say the computer industry wasn't affected isn't true at all. Japan still makes a very large % of the world's embedded chips, used in everything from portable media players to factory control systems. And some of those factories were in Sendai and other areas affected by the quake.
  
  --
  Monstar L
14. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anne+Thwacks · 2011-12-21 00:38 · Score: 1
  
  Windows 7 is made in Japan?
  
  --
  Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
15. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anne+Thwacks · 2011-12-21 00:43 · Score: 1
  
  You think they are actually worse than the last bunch? You might try reading the news (tax settlements, phone regulators, bank exchange rates, to name but a few issues that the pervious govenment stood by and watched, while the present bunch are publicly throwing a sop).
  Yay! Vote Gordon Brown - he knows how to spend your money better than you do! (Jobs for the boys is the answer -Mugabe told him so).
  
  --
  Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
16. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Xest · 2011-12-21 01:00 · Score: 1
  
  Because people read The Daily Mail? Yeah, I guess that is a bit of a problem.
17. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 02:04 · Score: 0
  
  Some is even made in China. And it matters. YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT MATTERS! (hugs 105 P...)
18. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 02:30 · Score: 0
  
  The earthquake and tsunami affected the TV/Film industry alot, which think it qualifies as part of the tech world. When the Sony factories flooded, you couldn't find any HDCAM SR tapes anywhere. This is the industry standard format for HD media. The prices for used tapes were ridiculously high, some major broadcasters even accepted lesser quality formats because the right tapes were impossible to get ahold of.
19. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by sootman · 2011-12-21 03:14 · Score: 1
  
  > Remember that time in the '90s when a Taiwanese RAM
  > factory caught fire, and it turned out to be a big chunk of
  > world RAM output? Sent prices spiking for a while.
  IIRC, that was more or less a cover for price fixing.
  http://tech.slashdot.org/story/05/04/22/1850250/ram-manufacturers-fined-for-price-fixing
  http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/10/5429.ars
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing
  Many more links available if you search for 'ram price fixing'
  
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  Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
20. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 04:01 · Score: 0
  
  You think [the current Conservative administration] are actually worse than the [previous Labour government]?
  In the sense that a mugger who hits you sixteen times on the head is worse than one who does it thirteen times? Yep.
21. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Grishnakh · 2011-12-21 07:58 · Score: 1
  
  Because in the UK they have LAWS that are enforced by professional stewards of the public good.....
  Japan is exactly the same way: high cost of living, strong government, strong rights for workers, etc. Of course, Thailand isn't, but the earthquake/tsunami hit Japan. The simple fact here is that the Japanese are very strong in engineering, and the British simply aren't. The British haven't been very big on engineering since the early 20th Century; after WWII, it was all straight downhill for them. Before then, Britain used to be the center of the world for science, technology, and of course military and economic power, but the Empire ended around that time and they haven't done anything interesting since the war ended. The only thing Britain does any more to bring in money it seems is finance (there's a huge stock exchange in London); they don't really do anything else productive (and I wouldn't really call that productive either).
  The Japanese, by contrast, while they've moved a lot of their production to China and Thailand, still are very strong in engineering, and they also still do a lot of high-end manufacturing; they're very much like Germany this way. However, unlike Germany, they're also cursed with some crappy geography (I hear it's beautiful in many places, but for large-scale manufacturing it isn't exactly ideal with tons of mountains, very little flat land, very little open land at all, and a big fault line right off shore and frequent earthquakes). Countries don't get to pick their geography, they're stuck with what they've inherited from their ancestors, unless of course you're like the British and you like to run around stealing other peoples' land and euphemistically calling them "colonies", using them as your laborers and while still calling them crown subjects, give them greatly reduced rights and civil liberties compared to citizens living in GB proper.
22. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2011-12-21 08:37 · Score: 1
  
  Only Nikon's higher end equipment is manufactured in Japan, the rest is in Thailand. This crops up quite frequently in the Nikon vs Canon flamewars as if it actually matters.
  True - and Nikon's upcoming dSLRs (the D700 and D3s/x replacements), which initially were universally expected to be released this summer and/or fall, are now likely shipping next spring because of tsunami-related delays.
  
  --
  #DeleteChrome
23. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by grim4593 · 2011-12-21 11:22 · Score: 1
  
  I'll have you know that all of those legal problems can be solved by bribes in the Great US of A too!
24. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Skal+Tura · 2011-12-21 15:18 · Score: 1
  
  Normally insurances do NOT cover force majeure such as forces of the nature. But i guess they could get one with a huge premium on it.
  Still, insurances are gambling weighted on favor of the insurer, so you are pretty much guaranteed to make a loss on long run.
  All insurances are a gamble, you are gambling that something bad happens, and insurance co is betting against, larger the pool of insured for the same thing, the bigger the pool of prizes is vs. the cost of gambling.
  As an average odds are badly against you, but there are the few things where insurance is a good idea: In cases where odds are bad, but if it hits, the PRIZE is huge one, ie. car insurance -> knock someone over and they get paralyzed below waist permanently, insurance co is paying and not you.
  
  --
  Pulsed Media Seedboxes
25. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by cthulhu11 · 2011-12-21 19:37 · Score: 1
  
  Agreed -- and this is an arena where supplies are often thin at the best of times. Nikon shooters might have to twiddle their thumbs for months until Nikon decides to do a production run of a given lens.
26. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by x0 · 2011-12-22 01:28 · Score: 1
  
  The British haven't been very big on engineering since the early 20th Century; after WWII, it was all straight downhill for them.
  Because we all know that Formula 1 lacks engineering skill...
  
  m
  
  --
  In the immortal words of Socrates, who said; 'I drank what?'
27. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by DerekLyons · 2011-12-22 01:48 · Score: 1
  
  I'm glad I'm a Canon shooter. [/brandflamewars] :)
  But more seriously, it's just annoying sometimes how provincial Slashdot can often be.
28. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by cthulhu11 · 2011-12-22 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  Me too, though the mirror slap on my 5D2 and AF issues have led to more than a few thoughts of defection. If only Nikon had a real analogue to the 135L.
29. Re:Where else do our parts come from? by Grishnakh · 2011-12-22 07:21 · Score: 1
  
  Formula 1 is a bunch of well-funded corporations playing games with few practical applications, though they sometimes try out new technologies in these races. That may have benefited some automakers like Honda or BMW, however Britain doesn't have any automakers to speak of, so if they're competing in F1, it's really a waste. The only automakers in Britain are a handful of extremely low-volume specialty makers, plus one higher-volume maker named after a kind of large cat that sells rebadged Fords because they couldn't figure out how to make reliable cars on their own.
Keep your comments short! by hcs_$reboot · 2011-12-20 20:37 · Score: 5, Funny

/. disks are getting full.

--
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
1. Re:Keep your comments short! by thatbox · 2011-12-20 21:24 · Score: 2
  
  We can save money by posting dupes!
2. Re:Keep your comments short! by Waccoon · 2011-12-21 01:14 · Score: 1
  
  use smaller fonts.
  luddites can ditch uppercase
3. Re:Keep your comments short! by irockash · 2011-12-21 02:10 · Score: 1
  
  You could've left off that period too. Not me, I'm a glutton.
Phew , I mean I was thinking of the 600 dead... by Viol8 · 2011-12-20 21:41 · Score: 0, Offtopic

.. but hey, so long as hard drive prices are ok, then whats the problem?.
Really editors, get a fscking sense of perspective.
Short. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-20 21:44 · Score: 0

Ok.
Redundancy by vencs · 2011-12-20 21:51 · Score: 2, Insightful

This news reveals an important piece: The is no real redundancy in the suppliers when in comes to important parts of todays' devices. I often see* that the hard disk array suppliers keep buying them from a couple of asian outfits thinking they will be safe hands. But the asian hardware vendors themselves buy/order from the same manufacturer of platters/board/NAND creating a single point of failure scenario.
There should be a clear visibility of the supply chain of not just the end/whole product but also the key components of it. In another story, heard that shipping of Sonys' SEL50F18 lenses for NEX cameras are pushed to Mar'12 after users payed for it, for the same reason.
* working for a big storage co.

PS: Misread Flood as Food.
1. Re:Redundancy by jones_supa · 2011-12-21 01:08 · Score: 2
  
  Actually, I think world is full of operations where there really isn't proper redundancy or backup plan. It would simply be too complicated or expensive to make it worth it. Life works in an optimistic manner.
2. Re:Redundancy by Fallingcow · 2011-12-21 04:12 · Score: 1
  
  The markets seem to create such bottlenecks. Hell, regional specialization in certain types of production is one of the supposed benefits of global free-trade.
  This effect is behind one of the arguments for using government to create less "efficient" but safer, more distributed production for certain things, especially food and products vital to national defense; e.g. the market may dictate that 100% of your farmland would be better used for mining, housing, factories, basically anything but farmland, but it might still be a good idea to live with a slightly lower GDP while forcing (one way or another) some of it to remain farmland so your people don't face severe food shortages when a major port gets knocked out by a storm, or you get blockaded by an adversary.
  One of the complaints I've seen leveled against organizations like the World Bank (though I admit I've not looked in to their validity) is that their policies tend to make it very difficult for states receiving aid to side with security over market efficiency in cases similar to that example.
Seagate by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · 2011-12-20 21:54 · Score: 2

I wonder why Seagate chose to slash their warranty even though its plants weren't affected by the floods.
1. Re:Seagate by Cyno01 · 2011-12-20 22:21 · Score: 2
  
  Because they could?
  
  --
  "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
2. Re:Seagate by idbeholda · 2011-12-21 00:07 · Score: 1
  
  Seagate's a piece of crap anyways. They're just finding new ways to polish turds and pass the savings onto the consumer. This should come as no surprise.
3. Re:Seagate by jones_supa · 2011-12-21 01:10 · Score: 1
  
  I recall that "to be more on par with other manufacturers" was one of their reasons. One could have thought that keeping longer warranties could have been an advantage for them.
4. Re:Seagate by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 01:26 · Score: 0
  
  Seagate offered a better warranty because their reliability is so bad and they 1) had to create the image of quality in the consumer's mind (look it must be a better drive because it has a 5 year warranty) and 2) because retailers would not carry them if they had to stand behind them more than offering replacements for DOAs.
5. Re:Seagate by Junta · 2011-12-21 01:53 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Simple:
  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/seagate-samsung-acquisition/
  http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/07/western-digital-drops-4-3-billion-to-acquire-hitachi-gst-enter/
  http://www.crn.com/news/storage/188100939/seagate-wraps-up-maxtor-acquisition.htm
  When/if the Hitachi acquisition closes, you only have two vendors in the spinning magnetic disk market. Last time there was a large industry shift to shorter warranties, one or two companies did not and after a few months the rest of the industry moved back. With only two companies in play, it's far less likely someone will retain long warranty as a competitive advantage. Same reason why the flood was so devastating, one company consolidates so much in one location and a natural disaster wipes out half the manufacturing capacity of that industry.
  
  --
  XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
6. Re:Seagate by Hatta · 2011-12-21 06:20 · Score: 1
  
  Hm, I guess that sea gate was a good idea after all.
  
  --
  Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
7. Re:Seagate by ChrisMaple · 2011-12-21 07:27 · Score: 1
  
  Reliability varies more by model than by brand. Seagate is a bit worse than WD overall, but the real loser is Hitachi. Claiming that Seagate is dramatically bad is unjustified.
  
  --
  Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
8. Re:Seagate by idbeholda · 2011-12-21 09:07 · Score: 0
  
  From personal experience, the last 4 Seagate drives that I've made the mistake of purchasing have crapped themselves within 3 months of solid use. I've never had WD fail on me. Hitachi is pretty bad, though.
9. Re:Seagate by Skal+Tura · 2011-12-21 15:22 · Score: 1
  
  Mod parent +1 insightful :P
  Yeah, they could do it now, and thus save huge amounts of money to make their profit margin wider :)
  Samsung is probably very happy happy joy joy, getting to charge a premium AND still sell more than competition AND cut their warranty period
  
  --
  Pulsed Media Seedboxes
Perspective by captainpanic · 2011-12-20 21:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

Exactly, a perspective. Let me explain what that means:
In this huge world with 7 billion people, every 3 minutes, about 600 die. (On average about 3 per second). And our population growth is so fast that the 600 dead had been replaced (sorry for the dry factual choice of words) before the floods even hit the news. ... But the harddrive problem affects the world, albeit in a modest way, for months.
So yeah, it seems the editors really do have a sense of perspective. Maybe you prefer a more emotional perspective... but if you want to mourn every couple of hundred people that die, you'd better empty your agenda. It's a full time job.
1. Re:Perspective by Viol8 · 2011-12-20 22:01 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  "In this huge world with 7 billion people, every 3 minutes, about 600 die. (On average about 3 per second)."
  So will you take that dispassionate viewpoint if your wife/gf/mother/father dropped dead suddenly?
  "And our population growth is so fast that the 600 dead had been replaced (sorry for the dry factual choice of words) before the floods even hit the news."
  So what , its still a tragic event for the people involved.
  "But the harddrive problem affects the world, albeit in a modest way, for months"
  Oh BS. The world will still turn if little johnny can't upgrade his HD to keep more porn on. Any serious business users will have plenty of drives in store anyway.
2. Re:Perspective by captainpanic · 2011-12-20 22:05 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Can't beat the "what if that was your own family" argument. You win. ;-)
  But as a last remark (yes, I want a -1 flamebait).: From your "perspective", do you ever discuss anything other than dead people?
3. Re:Perspective by RivenAleem · 2011-12-21 00:02 · Score: 1
  
  Oh BS. The world will still turn if little johnny can't upgrade his HD to keep more porn on. Any serious business users will have plenty of drives in store anyway.
  There you go, doing the exact same thing. What if it was your wife/gf/mother/father's hard drive that needed replacing? You take such a dispassionate viewpoint. It's all well and good when the hard drives that need replacing belong to some faceless corporation, but it's totally different when you bring it closer to home.
4. Re:Perspective by MartinSchou · 2011-12-21 00:15 · Score: 2
  
  Can't beat the "what if that was your own family" argument.
  Of course you can beat that argument.
  "If it was my family, that was wiped out like that, I wouldn't be buying new hard drives for their computers. In other words, I wouldn't be having this problem."
5. Re:Perspective by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 00:18 · Score: 0
  
  So will you take that dispassionate viewpoint if your wife/gf/mother/father dropped dead suddenly?
  Appeal to emotion? Really?
  
  My family is my business. Your family is your business. I don't ask you to cry over mine, so don't expect.. no thats not right.. you dont expect.. you expect not, so you try to manipulate...
  
  Two words: "Fuck you"
6. Re:Perspective by Viol8 · 2011-12-21 01:50 · Score: 1
  
  You try that again, this time in intelligable english?
7. Re:Perspective by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 04:25 · Score: 0
  
  So will you take that dispassionate viewpoint if your wife/gf/mother/father dropped dead suddenly?
  Of course no one would. However, they also probably wouldn't expect a geek site to report on it over other things.
8. Re:Perspective by mcgrew · 2011-12-21 04:36 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  So will you take that dispassionate viewpoint if your wife/gf/mother/father dropped dead suddenly?
  
  No, but I wouldn't expect comments about it to be posted to slashdot without being modded "offtopic". because if my (very aged) parents died, it would be meaningless to anyone who doesn't know them.
  Unless you know them personally, the 600 dead isn't news, it's gossip. The price of hard drives affects all of us.
  You are, in fact, the one without a sense of perspective. What about the hundreds that die every day from hunger? Yep, they're offtopic, too.
  
  --
  Free Martian Whores!
9. Re:Perspective by Grishnakh · 2011-12-21 08:03 · Score: 1
  
  You try that again, this time in intelligable english?
  Pot... kettle...
Genghis Khaaaa aaa a a aan by Hognoxious · 2011-12-20 22:11 · Score: 3, Interesting

My only guess is that people were hording.
Riding round on horses terrorizing people?

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
1. Re:Genghis Khaaaa aaa a a aan by zippthorne · 2011-12-21 00:37 · Score: 1
  
  Where did you get that definition?
  
  --
  Can you be Even More Awesome?!
2. Re:Genghis Khaaaa aaa a a aan by karnal · 2011-12-21 00:47 · Score: 1
  
  http://www.yourdictionary.com/hording
  First hit in google?
  
  --
  Karnal
3. Re:Genghis Khaaaa aaa a a aan by zippthorne · 2011-12-21 15:13 · Score: 1
  
  Doesn't say anything about horses. Google wasn't so good to me. I wonder if other things I've (or people from my ip address as it shifts around) have searched for have tainted my results. I didn't get anything resembling a definition when I searched.
  Which sucked, because I wanted to make a joke about farding while hording. I couldn't think of one, though, so I guess it's just as well.
  Also, autocorrect sucks. I just want to context click like we used to when a word was misspelt
  
  --
  Can you be Even More Awesome?!
4. Re:Genghis Khaaaa aaa a a aan by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-26 01:23 · Score: 0
  
  But it does says that horde is a group of Mongols, who aren't exactly famous for their infantry. Haven't you heard of Genghis Khan?
Read it completely wrong again ... by TheHummer · 2011-12-20 22:45 · Score: 1

Im very sorry if someone gets offended but I truly read the headline as: Hard Drive Prices Slide As Thai Food Aftermath Subsides
1. Re:Read it completely wrong again ... by AntEater · 2011-12-21 01:41 · Score: 1
  
  You're not alone. I had to read it through a second time because the connection between Thai food and hard drives wasn't making sense to me.
  
  --
  Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
2. Re:Read it completely wrong again ... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 02:15 · Score: 0
  
  No, but 'Thai food' and 'slide' was...
total unperspective vortex by epine · 2011-12-21 00:17 · Score: 1

From Wikiquote:

Russian historians have no record of the lines, "Death of one man is a tragedy. Death of a million is a statistic," commonly attributed by English-language dictionaries to Josef Stalin.
Since we're not sure it was spoken, I guess the pendulum swings back to tragedy.
Stalin would surely have continued: "Death of 30 million is prudence." What if it was you and your wife and your gf and your mother and your father? Hint: a day of morning is tragedy, a thousand years is history.
Read: by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 00:18 · Score: 0

Manufacturers and retailers figured out price gouging wasn't working, people stopped buying. Now they know, and will be prepared to gouge us more subtly in the near future.
Oh wait, it's already begun: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/12/19/1618254/hard-drive-makers-slash-warranties
This often happens by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 00:55 · Score: 0

This often happens when a process goes off line for a time. It also normally works itself out after a few months. I'll be waiting a few months myself. http://viboot.com/
SSD Demand by Guppy · 2011-12-21 01:16 · Score: 2

From the article:

Data from DRAMeXchange also showed that rush orders for SSDs increased after the Thailand flooding disrupted hard disk drive supplies.
According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, rush orders for SSDs rose even as shipments of end-market products, including PCs, smartphones and tablet PCs, remained slugish because of slow economic conditions.
Despite SSDs not being an exact replacement for spinning rust, it looks like the HD shortage is indeed having the predicted effects on the SSD market.
1. Re:SSD Demand by mjwx · 2011-12-21 18:12 · Score: 1
  
  From the article:
  
  Data from DRAMeXchange also showed that rush orders for SSDs increased after the Thailand flooding disrupted hard disk drive supplies.
  According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, rush orders for SSDs rose even as shipments of end-market products, including PCs, smartphones and tablet PCs, remained slugish because of slow economic conditions.
  Despite SSDs not being an exact replacement for spinning rust, it looks like the HD shortage is indeed having the predicted effects on the SSD market.
  I'd say that more then mechanical HDD availability, price reduction in SSD's are drawing in people. I can get a 256 GB SSD for A$360, first SSD that's affordable and large enough for a gaming machine. Users with less onerous storage requirements can get 128 GB for A$200 or less.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Right as always by roman_mir · 2011-12-21 01:16 · Score: 2

What can I say, market is a price discovery mechanism and this truth still holds, even though so many in those previous stories disagreed because they completely miss the understanding of most basic economic principles.
Price discovery and profit are market principles that send signals to manufacturers to increase or decrease production, and the profit is the engine of progress - goods is what people want and are willing to trade their time (money) for them, thus the more profit one is making by supplying people with goods the more this indicates that the business is sound.
Of-course in a free market (free of government regulations), the absence of government regulations prevents possibility of a monopoly and thus the distribution becomes more and more efficient with prices falling and quality increasing.

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You can't handle the truth.
1. Re:Right as always by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 02:36 · Score: 1
  
  the absence of government regulations prevents possibility of a monopoly
  That is not true. There are *other* methods to keep a monopoly than gov regulations. Such as bribery, battery, assault, blockage, blackmail, trade barrier, etc...
  Gov regulations *can* create a monopoly (many have directly and thru side effect). But it is not necessarily true that no gov regulations will create a 100% free fungible market. Where anyone can enter and leave at will (aside from cost). There are other variables here which many economic models ignore (as there is no good way to model them).
  In fact many monopolies are created thru the use of bribery (both customer and gov 'contributions'). It is quickest and easiest way. "hey here is 100 bucks if you carry my stuff". Eventually competitor leaves market as you had more cash to burn. Now you 100% own market can set prices at monopoly levels. New competitor enters rinse and repeat.
  What you described would end up closer to the way the cliche mafia would run things. "you want to ship this you must use our port or we kick your skull in".
  The issue you want to talk about is social engineering. That is where most govs get into the weeds. "We want X % of less power used by year ABCD". That in effect can put business out of business. That happens because they are not as efficient or dont have as much cash to burn. Suddenly there are 2 competitors and the gov freaks out and tries to put the house of cards back together thru *more regulation*. Which usually has the wrong effect. Now on the other side of the coin no gov regulations can end up with the situation in the 50s around the great lakes. You did not swim/fish/drink/breath near that. It was that nasty. Businesses did what was cheapest and dumped chemicals right into public waterways.
  Remember the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules.
  But rememeber my corilary. He who has a bigger stick can take the gold.
2. Re:Right as always by geekoid · 2011-12-21 04:29 · Score: 1
  
  ", the absence of government regulations prevents possibility of a monopoly"
  that is incorrect. I suggest you look at history. Robber Barons and EITC might be a good place to start.
  It is the natural position of a corporation to use it's power to stop all competition at any cost.
  "thus the distribution becomes more and more efficient with prices falling and quality increasing."
  also False.
  Why do you say that? all evidence throughout history disagrees with those statements.
  
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  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
3. Re:Right as always by geekoid · 2011-12-21 04:41 · Score: 1
  
  " New competitor enters rinse and repeat."
  NO. You miss the point. You use your 100% monopoly to not allow competition. Like the HEIC did until they were stopped by the government.
  
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  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
4. Re:Right as always by roman_mir · 2011-12-21 13:12 · Score: 2
  
  From your past comments I recognize that you don't understand any of basics, so it would be a fool's errand to get into real details before you understood them, I suggest a good primer on basic stuff first.
  
  --
  You can't handle the truth.
really? by hesaigo999ca · 2011-12-21 01:19 · Score: 0

>IDC has predicted that hard disk drive supply shortages in the wake of Thailand flooding would affect consumers,
Funny ....there was just as many drives for sale on the shelves at bestbuy as usual....where was the shortage....let it go for about 1 year, and let the shelves empty out, and people scramble to get all their old hdds dusted off, then maybe ill believe a shortage...this stinks of the same crap that the oil companies try pawning off on the economy when a small storm hits, and low and behold have to raise their prices by 12 cents because the factory was closed for 1 day...
1. Re:really? by swalve · 2011-12-21 02:56 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  A shortage doesn't have to be that severe to affect prices. If the manufacturer says "hey, by the way, you won't be getting another delivery until December," the distributor does some math and raises prices to make sure they don't run out before December. The market worked the way it was supposed to: prices went up and the demand went down. The number of boxes on the shelf are meaningless; it is the rate at which they are sold and replenished that is meaningful.
2. Re:really? by hesaigo999ca · 2011-12-21 08:39 · Score: 1
  
  Not if people all of a sudden does not want any....the whole point to my post was to show how as consumers we are stupid at letting the oil industry dictate the pricing to such an extreme where all it would take is a few weeks without gassing up to really bring down the price.
3. Re:really? by swalve · 2011-12-21 12:59 · Score: 1
  
  Except they don't dictate the pricing; demand dictates it. The US consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. Even in the depths of the last recession, crude remained at $40 a bbl (DOUBLE that of 10 years prior), and gas prices only went down to $2 something a gallon. Demand for gasoline went down, but not by much. What really went down was demand for diesel. Interesting data here (in the historical links).
Thai food aftermath?!? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 01:42 · Score: 0

need more coffee
Was Hitachi affected by the floods? by JDG1980 · 2011-12-21 02:17 · Score: 1

I know that WD announced the acquisition of Hitachi's HDD business back in March of this year. Has this been completed yet? Is Hitachi still using their own factories? Were those factories also in Thailand? The reason I'm wondering is because I'm concerned about quality on the new drives made from reclaimed flooded equipment – and the fact that both WD and Seagate are slashing warranties is definitely not a good sign. Hitachi has a reasonably good reputation and I've been using one of their 2TB drives for about six months with no issues (fingers crossed).
then fine move the facilities to North Korea where by Joe_Dragon · 2011-12-21 02:58 · Score: 1

then fine move the facilities to North Korea where there are no works rights at all and they can be build just for the shipping + parts costs.
Why do you think they reduced the warranties? by tomhudson · 2011-12-21 03:53 · Score: 1

there is NO way you are gonna get a clean room facility up to snuff & speed in a matter of days

Of course not. Which is why they've gone from 5 years to 1 or 2. Let someone else take the hit by buying the first few months production - it's going to be like buying a car manufactured on a Monday - way more defects.
Too late for hard drives. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-12-21 08:19 · Score: 0

I've switched to floppies.
thai food aftermath? by camazotz · 2011-12-22 03:21 · Score: 1

I was initially more concerned about the link between technology and gastric issues until I realized I had misread the article title as, "Hard drive prices slide as thai food aftermath subsides."