Stitch,
I have a question about this. This seems to be for GMR on the desktop. What are the advantages that GMR will give that desktop users will need next year? Won't MR be enough for awhile (a couple of years at least)? And won't GMR be expensive relative to MR, since quantities will be much lower? Or was WDC burnt badly enough that they just want to jump into GMR ahead of the curve? Or will they then go ahead and use GMR in their enterprise drives as well?
FWIW, I thought I read that RDRT had qualified on a 2.8 program, but the memory is fuzzy, and I can't recall where. I will try to find tomorrow if I have time. Nonetheless, personally I agree with you--this is bad for RDRT and very, very bad for APM unless they have their own GMR program up and running very very soon.
Maybe this will lead IBM to become more of a component supplier, and will mean that they will not be so aggressive in drives, since they want their customers to be healthy, and want the higher margins in the components where they have a larger lead? Just a wish, perhaps.
Best,
Sam |
