Hard Drive Vendors Pushing for Long Term Contracts with PC Makers
Hard Drive Vendors Pushing for Long Term Contracts with PC Makers
Posted 12/28/2011 at 9:48am
| by Paul Lilly
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Hard drive makers put most of their eggs in a single basket by building the bulk of their manufacturing facilities in a flood prone section of Thailand, and that strategy came back to bite them on the backside when severe floods earlier this year dismantled their operations. As hard drive makers look to get back on track, they're coming up with various strategies to ensure no more monetary losses.
One of those strategies is having PC makers sign long term HDD supply contracts, DigiTimes reports. HDD vendors want PC OEMs to agree to one-year buying contracts that would lock them into specific prices and volumes for the next 12 months. PC makers are understandably hesitant and fear that once operations are fully restored, hard drive prices will take a nose dive.
This isn't the only tactic HDD vendors have been toying with. Both Seagate and Western Digital recently reduced their hard drive warranties, in some cases down to just one year (Seagate Barracuda, Barracuda Green, and Momentus hard drives).
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livebriand
December 28, 2011 at 1:20pm
Damn, the the HD manufacturers are the ones who screwed up here and then we pay? At this point, if I need to replace my hard drive, I'll seriously be considering an SSD. I'm thinking of maybe a 60GB one for the boot drive, and one of the older 500GB drives I have lying around for data storage (it's not that fast, but works just fine). Man, it really seems like the HD manufacturers know just how to loose customers to SSDs, so that they'll never return.
DoctorX
December 28, 2011 at 12:14pm
so let me get this straight... they screw up by putting all their eggs in one place... and we have to pay for that? As far as i am concerned, they asked for it.
God i hope i dont need a drive in the news 6mo.
AETAaAS
December 28, 2011 at 10:08am
On the one hand, I'm sympathetic to the HDD makers, since they have taken quite a hit and understandably do need some way to claw back some lost revenue.
On the other, consumers get screwed with shortened warranties, more expensive drives (and subsequently computers) and reduced quality as they may salvage parts or resort to cost cutting; their shortened warranties show they have not the faith in their drives.
So screw it, SSDs FTW. :p
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