I believe you have a pretty tight view on units/products and perhaps the channel. What's your take on the 4 recent earnings warnings?
Today, we saw HTCH say they were actually selling less units, not that they were having an ASP problem as has been suggested by the Maxtor, Quantum and WD.
So, where are the drives coming from and why is Hutch selling less suspensions? It seems to me that SEG is streamlining their channel which should mean there's a lot of unwanted inventory from partners who are getting the boot.
You have Quantum exiting BigFoot which means they are in dump mode to be out of that business. You have perhaps a buying shift as IBM establishes premier supplier role with Dell, EMC and Acer?
What's going on?
Are we seeing a typical imbalance of capacity to demand driving ASP's down, or are we seeing a continuing clearing of inventory which started with the first Build-to-Order announcements?
Why is Hutch selling fewer suspensions. They suggest, and the market accepted it, that this problem is over as they are bringing back the laid off employees and adding manufacturing capacity. I would also assume they probably had a little conference call which reassured everyone.
So, Like Yogi says, what's going on. It's all a little confusing. Is it being helped by a general feeling that this is a good time to own tech stocks, or are things looking somehow changed?
In the case of Hutch, I'm surprised to see them end the day up so much. How's the average platter count going? Are we seeing a trend that continues to show less high end suspensions will be sold as fewer platters are needed? Any thoughts on TSA in general?
Regards,
Mark |
