Folks, I want to return to my argument about the death of high-end.
A bleeding-edge desktop drive has an IDE interface, areal density of 3.4/disk, 5400rpm, and costs 3 cents per meg. A mid-life high-end drive has SCSI, 1.8/disk, 7200rpm, and costs 6 cents or so.
Is the premium worth it? My contention is no, it's an artificial margin that will collapse. I think this will benefit the desktop players (Maxtor, Quantum) and kill the high-enders (Seagate).
Here's what Quantum should do. They've already killed Atlas. Now they should kill Viking, too. Instead, just develop Fireball @ 7200rpm. Swap out IDE for SCSI, rejigger the firmware to write some more error-checking codes (this may lower areal density by a few percentage points, big deal), brand this as a "enterprise-class Viking" drive, and sell it for HALF PRICE.
Scorched earth. I love it. |
