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Technology Stocks : Seagate Technology
STX 405.45-3.1%Feb 5 4:00 PM EST
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To: Frodo Baxter who wrote (3048)9/19/1997 11:13:00 AM
From: JoeBiker   of 7841
 
Wet disk technology is just one of many ideas that worked kinda sorta in the lab but never made production. A small startup company (the name escapes my memory) pioneered the technology and when it was looking promising, the company was bought by Conner Peripherals, who promptly spent millions trying to make it work before throwing in the towel.

The basic technology was a fluid on the surface of the disk, the viscosity of which contributed to low and stable fly heights. Centrifugal force forced the fluid to the o.d. where a passive wick system picked it up and recirculated it to the i.d.

It was probably a bad example because spin valve heads are far more promising. My point was don't underestimate how hard it is to bring new technologies to high volume production.

It's really a tricky job, picking which technologies to pursue for which products. Bite off too much and your product is late while you try to make the new stuff work. Too conservative and you fall behind the density curve. The latter is what Conner, and now Seagate, are doing. It takes a technology AND market savvy leader to do a good job at picking the right point to roll in new technologies. The Seagate mainstream desktop division is run by an ex-Conner guy.

Keep in mind that I'm a disk drive engineer, and my perspective is probably quite different from most investors and analysts. Clearly, I view the problem as much more serious than, say, Gus does. It's an issue on which reasonable people may differ.
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