Sarmad,
<<But are they at a profitable level now ? Or do prices have to increase before the DD companies can make money ?>>
Well, for sure, there is no going back in terms of prices. There will be no price increases I am sure. Sam reminded us of the Luczo quote: "This isn't a price war, its a cost war". What he meant , IMO, is that the market is driving these prices. If you aren't there at the market price, you just aren't there at all. That sub 1K PCs are the only real growth segment of the PC market underscores this but at virtually all levels of the market, and for certain in the emerging appliance market, cost (price) is king.
In any case, maybe the following bit of news is good for those who have been worrying about the post Christmas blahs this market usually experiences. This is from a just published, 71 page Morgan Stanley report which summarizes a major channel survey they commission which includes disk drives, PCs, and Printers.
"Respondents expected SIGNIFICANTLY LESS
SEASONALITY IN CQ1 than normal. 50% of US and
European channel participants thought sales in CQ1 would
be up 10-20% sequentially. This is surprising, because
historically PC sales have declined from Q4 to Q1. None of
our US and only 3% of our European survey respondents
thought that sales would be down Q/Q in CQ1." |
