Stitch, It seems to me that RDRT entered a new business with WD when they announced an enterprise program. Do you see this as significant? Do you think enterprise heads will offer up new business opportunities with other customers?
If RDRT has taken a portion of the enterprise from WD, this would be in addition to their traditional desktop business. So, they could afford to loose some small percentage of desktop and make it up with enterprise? I would think enterprise heads were higher margin?
We talked of IBM's having problem assembling head stacks with a Chinese partner. Could this have been holding them back from getting the WD business going sooner and has IBM got a new partner now or solved this problem yet?
What do you think of Quantum phasing out the Bigfoot program? Will it happen and how soon? This product line is a huge percentage of their business (30%) and seems to be their major thrust in the low end business. Does Bigfoot give them any advantage to a sub $1000 PC and what will they replace it with? I ask because an announcement of Quantum qualifiying RDRT into a new program would be worth it's weight in gold. If Quantum shifted back to all smaller forms, how would this change general head demand internally and for the industry?
Any thoughts about what is happening to MKQC, the Quantum joint venture to make heads? I suppose it will be history very soon. Are they going to sell the company and take a total loss?
RDRT is qualified to supply cluster heads for the SDLT tape drive. This will be a great business. I believe, but memory could be wrong, that RDRT said this could amount to 10% of revenues. With a program like this, how could Quantum not take supply from RDRT for HDD heads? Surely, they have a good enough product.
Last I heard, Quantum was very late announcing a 4.3 gig program. Do you think they will skip 4.3? Is there a good reason to delay this capacity point, or have they screwed up?
Seasons Greetings to you and your family. I've truly enjoyed our discussions which have added a lot of enjoyment to my life. I imagine it will be an interesting holiday with Ramadan coming soon.
Greetings to the thread as well. I'm hopelessly addicted to our conversations and appreciate all your thoughts.
Best Regards,
Mark |
