Tech Price Watch: External 1.5TB Disk Drive For Under $100

November 13, 2009

Western Digital Element 1.5 TB Go External Drive for under $100After a couple weeks hiatus, hard disk drive prices are heading downwards again.

Fry’s is now offering Western Digital’s Element 1.5TB external USB drive for under $100. That’s about $66 per terabyte. A better deal than the already low $78 price tag for SimpleTech’s 1TB drive.

WD beats Seagate on low price

Our last check on the external 1.5TB drive category showed a Seagate disk for $125.

On the same page today, Fry’s is advertising Seagate’s 1.5TB internal drive for $100; still more expensive than Samsung’s 1.5TB drive that sold for $80 in early October!

For next week’s Black Friday, I expect most of the drive makers to align their price to Western Digital’s and perhaps to go as low as $100 for an external 2TB drive or a whopping $50 a terabyte. Currently, an external 2TB drive costs about $170.

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Tech Price Watch: Internal 2TB Disk Drives For Under $160

November 9, 2009

Hitachi and Seagate are the price leaders in the 2TB internal drive category

At the current pace, an internal 2TB drive will cost under $100 in about 6 months.

So by the same time next year, it will be as hard to find 1TB  drives as it today for 500GB! And I won’t be surprised to find some Black Friday deals for 2TB drives (internal or external) close to the $100 barrier.

Interestingly, the 1.5TB drive category didn’t really had time to establish itself in the market, squeezed by the super low cost 1TB drives and the 2TB drives.

In the 2TB internal drive category, Hitachi – which also owns the low-cost Simpletech brand – and Seagate are the price leaders. For 1TB internal drives, Western Digital is still the company to beat at less than $60.

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Analyst: Hard Disk Drive Shipments Worst Decline Ever In 2009

February 4, 2009

Hard disk drive makers are in for a very very tough year.

According to Coughlin Associates, fourth quarter 2008 hard disk drive (HDD) shipments declined about 19% from the third quarter of 2008; an unprecedented Q3 to Q4 drop.

Total HDD shipments for 2008 were about 540 million units and could fall as low as 500 million units this year, on par with 2007 volume.

“There is more downside than upside ahead and as a consequence, HDD unit shipments in 2009 will experience their worst year over year decline ever. The total decline in HDD units in 2009 over 2008 will be between 5% and 9% with a decline of 7% being likely,“ writes Tom Coughlin, the principal analyst at Coughlin Associates.

However, the decline in HDD revenue could be much steeper, as HDD companies like Toshiba, Samsung, Seagate or Western Digital engage in an unprecedented price war for survival.

Looking ahead, Coughlin expects positive growth in 2010 and a full recovery by 2011, with annual unit growth in the 20% or higher range or higher, like in 2003.

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Seagate CEO: Japanese Hard-Disk Drive Makers To Consolidate; No Price Wars

October 22, 2008
Bill Watkins, CEO, Seagate

Bill Watkins, CEO, Seagate

During a questions and answers session with Wall Street analysts, Seagate CEO, Bill Watkins said he anticipates a “Japanese consolidation” of hard-disk drive makers Hitachi, Fujitsu and Toshiba.

As opposed to Western Digital buying Fujitsu’s hard-disk drive business as Nikkei newspaper reported earlier this month.

Watkins also just doesn’t understand why Samsung is still in the disk-drive business “having spent the money they’re doing” and not making money!

“If you haven’t made money last year, you will certainly not make money next year”, said Watkins.

Finally, Seagate’s CEO doesn’t believe in an upcoming price war to drive competitors out of business. “We’re going to grow shares responsibly”, he adds.

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