Hard drive conspiracy theory

[linuxcooldude]

The floods in Thailand that is causing some shortages in available hard drives. A friend of mine is saying that the manufactures are raising the price of hard drives to try to get people to go to SSD drives instead.

It seems a bit outlandish with that thought. But as with most conspiracies, not really any evidence to support that claim. As with the law of supply & demand naturally prices would increase. I could see price gouging a bit perhaps, if there are more hard drives available then they were letting on. But seriously doubt it was to get people to buy more SSD drives.

Have you guys heard anything like that?

 

[miles01110]

Have you guys heard anything like that?

Not from anyone that actually knows what they're talking about.

 

[alust2013]

No, if they were trying to sell SSDs, the standard hard drives would still have to be a lot more expensive than they are now. They're still cheaper by a long shot.

 

[philipma1957]

No, if they were trying to sell SSDs, the standard hard drives would still have to be a lot more expensive than they are now. They're still cheaper by a long shot.

YES BUT if you are running a business and have to use a drive now to make money. buying this for 810


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-MZ-...ge_Internal&hash=item2eb980d328#ht_6218wt_907

vs buying this for 220

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WD-Western-...ultDomain_0&hash=item2a162200f5#ht_660wt_1398


looks much better then it did when that hdd was 89 bucks.

I do agree that the real problem was the flood and the fact that 99 precent of the drive motors are made in one plant. you could say they were hoping to have the plant suffer from a natural disaster and in fact samsung,toshiba, western digital make ssds.

so seagate suffered the most from this since hitachi no longer exists (western digital owns them) and seagate does not make ssds.

 

[alust2013]

I'm sure it looks better, but when you look at the manufacturer's standpoint as well, WD does make SSDs, but not good ones and they don't sell well. That leaves Samsung and Toshiba (again, doesn't sell SSDs in large volume) as the only companies that would profit from that.

 

[toxic]

A friend of mine is saying that the manufactures are raising the price of hard drives to try to get people to go to SSD drives instead.

that's a stupid theory. the major SSD players aren't major HDD manufacturers, aside from Samsung. it would be their benefit to make sure people don't switch.

 

[Abazigal]

The price of HDDs can triple and people needing them will still have to suck their thumbs and fork over the money. SSDs are still way too expensive to ever become a viable alternative in the near future, IMO.

 

[pprior]

Companies "want" to make money selling what consumers want. Companies that have billions invested in hard drive manufacturing plants don't desire to have consumers change their minds and desire new technology and then have to retool and invest billions more into new technology. They are forced to by a competitive market.

This is basic economics. In the old days where competition was low, we had slow or no progress (i.e. detroit autos circa 1970s).

Quit listening to the anti-capitalist OWS types and consider business decisions from a rational market sense. Hard drive companies love to sell hard drives, they will sell them for as much as they can get, and they will stop selling them when the market doesn't want them anymore.

 

[zephonic]

so seagate suffered the most from this since hitachi no longer exists (western digital owns them) and seagate does not make ssds.

I didn't get the memo so I read up on this, and it would seem that the merger was approved last week on the condition that WD sells off one of its 3.5" plants. Hitachi is still selling under its own name for the time being.

 

[Umbongo]

that's a stupid theory. the major SSD players aren't major HDD manufacturers, aside from Samsung. it would be their benefit to make sure people don't switch.

Samsung are selling their HDD business to Seagate.

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you could say they were hoping to have the plant suffer from a natural disaster and in fact samsung,toshiba, western digital make ssds.

so seagate suffered the most from this since hitachi no longer exists (western digital owns them) and seagate does not make ssds.

Seagate have enterprise SSD options, but the fact remains there are two HDD players now in Seagate and Western Digital and neither have a strong presence in the solid state storage market. Toshiba aren't a major player in either market. The whole notion is absurd.

 

[ActionableMango]

You got the conspiracy wrong

I'm pretty sure Elvis ordered his lackeys, George Bush and Barack Obama, to increase hard drive prices.

 

[milbournosphere]

The factory that flooded didn't make hard drives, they were a major source of hard drive *controllers*. THAT's why prices for HDDs are through the roof across the board, including almost all vendors. I doubt there's much foul play going on...the cost of a controller for your standard sata platter hard drive has simply gone through the roof;simple supply and demand, and the supply got majorly crunched. SSD costs seem to be stable and/or slowly dropping, just like always.