Last month, I noticed that prices of hard disk drives have considerably gone up in stores. This was due to the shortage of units coming in from flooded Thailand where most of the components come from.
Just had a long talk with a reliable source that’s close to a number of the manufacturers and local distributors and he tells me this trend will still continue in a few more months.
One of the most heavily affected is Western Digital and Seagate where majority of HDD production ands assembly are done in Thailand.
The shortage was so critical that in some areas, the retail prices of hard drives have tripled. I was in Gen San the other week and was told my my cousin there that the prices of HDDs are twice expensive than before.
My source tells me the prices will continue to be inflated until end December and might not stabilize and fall back to normal prices before March 2012. That’s 3 more months to go before we can go back to thinking of upgrading to a new HDD.
For the meantime, I’d always suggest to folks to hold off purchasing large-capacity hard drives.
BS. Just a ploy to keep the inflated prices up.
Buti nalang I bought a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint M8 hdd na last August. :D
LOL.. ika nga buy from august to September dyan pinakamura hardisk, memory,, i dont think na gusto nila itaas ng ganyan ang price at kung nag hohoard lahat ng retailshop then kung binenta nila ng mura yun stocks nila — may ibang tao rin mamamakyaw nyan same lang rin. kaya d sila gaano nag bebenta kc pag naubos stock nila masmahal pa sa SRP nila ang cost ng new stock nila. Ang totoo pa nyan BIG DISTRIBUTORS are offering MUST BUY my motherboard+harddisk bundle .. bago ka bentahan ng hard disk. so dont blame it @ retail shops
It’s easy to blame manufacturers and resellers for profiting off the thai calamity. But that’s capitalism and often they do not make as much as you might think.
First, the manufacturer will have to shoulder the cost of the lost equipments (insurance will cover a bit) and lost production. Then many of their drives are locked-in in terms of prices to their own partners, only those sold to the retail channels and small businesses partners will see price increases. Only on those will Seagate and co. profit.
On the resellers, yes, some maybe old stocks. But if they sold their 1TB for their former price of say 3k, that amount will only replenish them with a 500GB drive, they end up with an inferior drive. So don’t expect them to sell at their old prices, given that they are in business for profit not charity.
guys boycott nyo muna hanggat maaari yung mahal na presyo ng hardrive since bababa din yan next year pag dumami na supply, ako nga pagtitiyagaan ko na lang yung 14yr.old 4.3GB drive ko kaysa bumili ng mahal na hardrive hehe :p
Law of supply and demand… ganun talaga… kahit anong commodity naman kapag mababa ang supply at madami may kailangan.. kelangan tumaas ang presyo…
ewan ko lang ang fishball kapag nagkakaubusan na ng stocks :-p
Again, sinubukan kong mag ikot ikot ng Manila, wala naman talagang shortage sa HDD, wala nman basehan ang naging price hike nato at iilan lang nman ung naapektuhan ng flooding na hindi naman nakarating dito, ung naprice hike eh mga mtagal nang stock, so ang nangyari lang talaga eh isang malaking hoarding, di nman ako naapektuhan kc sa mga 2nd hand lang ako bumibili, which is way cheaper than bnew
It is the normal effect of the law of supply and demand.
Mukang palilipasin ko muna ang crisi na to bago ko bumili ng new hdd. mga summer nalang ako bibili hahaha di pa namn naghihingalo mga hdd ko
The funny thing is, local stores *are* taking advantage of this by raising prices of HDDs they already have in stock (and have had for the past year). Case in point, big pile of WD 1TBs at Octagon cost around 4k 1-2 months ago. Same, smaller pile now, 7k a piece. With the 3TB ones at around 11k I think. Jesus christ.
Timing could not have been better as a lot of people are saving up for their purchase on December but with steep prices now, people have to push back a few months their plans for an upgrade.
I guess the DTI should monitor the price hike of HDD’s…
Some stores are taking advantage of this shortage…
Price tags are not reasonable…
Yung ibang store old stock naman pero tinaasan na presyo… haaay, bad timing, I need a large HD pa naman ASAP, haaay…
Before pa nangyari ang sudden price bump, alam na ng mga reseller ng Enigma na tataaas ang mga presyo nian kaya hinoard nila ang mga HDD’s by thousands. I think contributing factor din ang hoarding sa sobrang taas ng presyo ng mga HDD’s ngayon.
magsasalita ako ng nakakasakit pero ito kasi ang totoo e, parang nag te take advantage mga harddisk makers para mataasan lang nila ang price, oo nagkaroon ng calamity which is yung baha, naka apekto sa negosyo and supply nila, pero look at other companies, for example Nikon, eto ang pinaka ineexpect ko na talagang grabe na tatamaan pero look their prices stayed the same, as well as Toyota and Mitsubishi na alam natin dun din galing mga CBU nilang mga sasakyan..
eto naman po ay sarili ko lang naman pong mga opinyon. salamat
No sir. Nikon also increased their SLR’s prices.
because Nikkon, Toyota and Mitsubishi are only a few of the many brands of cars and cameras kaya hindi nila kaya magtaas ng price kasi people will just shift to another brand.
Unlike with HDD, Seagate & Western Digital provides majority of stocks worldwide. There are only few left who are un-affected such as hitachi / samsung but its not enough to provide HDD for the whole global demand, kaya WD & Seagate can increase price to recover faster since almost all of their factories are in Thailand.
“the prices will continue to be inflated until end December and might not stabilize and fall back to normal prices before March 2012” … Hindi na ito because of the flooding… Raket na to!
It takes a long time for some of the factories to recover their manufacturing capacity. Motor base assemblies for example may take several weeks but those which require high technology will take at least 3-6 months.
It reminds me na palipasin na ang Pasko bago bumili ng HDD hehe. Baka sa bday ko na lang sa Feb ako bibili ng HDD :)
good thing I was able to buy one for my dad’s Mede8er player I bought here in yugadeals.
Really, the price went up…too bad, I was planning to buy a bigger HD space for the player.