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Hard drive shortage

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db90h:
updated last post (notification).. please read through my older posts, I went through this in great detail.

superboyac:
One thing to remember is that some retailers immediately jacked up prices too. Example:

Amazon.com is currently selling WD20EARS for $174 /w free shipping (highest yet, I've been monitoring)
Tigerdirect.com is current selling WD20EARS for $209.99 + extra shipping (been that high for a while, they even tried higher iirc)

-db90h (November 22, 2011, 03:44 PM)
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Do you think the days of cheap hard drives are over somewhat?  What I mean is that the last 2-3 years, hard drive prices were dirt cheap.  It got to a point where if I had to burn a dvd, I'd rather just go down to the store and get  a hard drive to dump stuff onto.

Is that changing?  i feel it is.  Cloud storage, laptops, tablets, phones...who is really relying on the desktop that's not a business?  So I feel like the demand is actually decreasing, or at least I can argue that (I have no idea what is really happening).  And because the demand is decreasing, the manufacturers are losing that consumer market.  So they will use any excuse to jack the prices up for the hardcore geeks who are becoming their only real consumer.

Here's a question: have the external drives jumped in price the way the bare drives have?

I'm closely paying attention to any restrictions on personal data storage.  That's why I may sound a little paranoid.  I'm afraid of this movement away from Windows and tradional operating systems, into things like Android and iOS, which has inevitably made most casual computer users not be concerned anymore about low-level file and folder access.  This is very similar to when people moved away from DOS commands into pretty GUIs for the OSs.  A few years later, nobody remembered the days when you had to use commands like "dir" and stuff.  Now, we're moving away from the way we used files and folders, and it has been simplified into very easy and convenient buttons.  Which is good for most people.  But that's because the companies are controlling all the data from the backend, hence the movement to cloud storage.  If you don't need those big heavy hard drives, you don't need the desktop. And if all you're doing is email and web stuff, you don't even need a keyboard, hence the touchscreens.  But...if you like to keep your own data to yourself, well, that just got a lot harder to balance.

If this is only for 6 months, that's cool.  But I don't think so.  I think the hard drive industry is going to be hit hard by the cloud storage and the tablet evolution.

superboyac:
updated last post (notification).. please read through my older posts, I went through this in great detail.
-db90h (November 22, 2011, 04:27 PM)
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I read all your stuff, thank you, it's very good information.  Please don't be offended if I keep harping about things, it's just a discussion.

db90h:
I read all your stuff, thank you, it's very good information.  Please don't be offended if I keep harping about things, it's just a discussion.
-superboyac (November 22, 2011, 04:37 PM)
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I tend to offend other people, so don't worry about me ;p.

You pose some interesting questions in the bigger picture, and I need to read it more to give a full response. I am too busy right now, typing this real fast to get back to work. However, I will say this: Remember that while there is certainly a growing market desire for tablets and other such devices, the PC (with keyboard and mouse input) remains the most efficient method to produce, and that is not likely to change anytime soon. Not only produce, but also consume in many cases. The business segment alone is no small segment, so also keep that in mind. Even simple things end users do are faster to do on a traditional PC with mouse and keyboard.

SSDs will eventually overtake HDDs and the price will start to rise, but that day is far away due to their inferior capacity and cost per MB ratio at this time.

I'll be back and respond to your full comments if I can.

db90h:
Ok, to respond more to your concerns .. again, in a hurry.. but:

If this is only for 6 months, that's cool.  But I don't think so.  I think the hard drive industry is going to be hit hard by the cloud storage and the tablet evolution.

--- End quote ---

What do you think backs the storage for all those clouds? Massive numbers of traditional 3.5" HDDs in server farms ....

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