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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T Bowl who wrote (7309)	11/7/1999 11:00:00 PM
From: Mark Madden	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Todd, I'm not sure all these prices are the VL series but here are the prices I have from different distributors: Maxtor 10.2 gb - $120, $127, $124, $135 20.4 gb - $191, 210, $231 Quantum 10.2 gb - $122, $130, $125, $117 20.4 gb - $198, $216, $192 Fujitsu 10.8 gb - $122, $127 Seagate 10.2 gb - $124, $136 20.4 gb - $203, $219 Western Digital 10.2 gb - $129, $140, $133, $131 20.4 gb - $208, $217, $232, $227 Maxtor seems to have the best prices. All the manufacturers seem to say they will not cut margins below cost. If this were true, why are they all reporting loses in the desk top business? Regards, Mark M.

To: T Bowl who wrote (7309)	11/8/1999 3:58:00 AM
From: Z Analyzer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

<<These tell me that MXTR is not interested in using price cuts to gain share, in fact they've said repeatedly that they would not do such a thing at the expense of margins. I might be grasping here, but the potential combination of MXTR being the areal density leader as well as the low price producer could prove fatal(hopefully) for some competitors. They've been the bleeding edge leader for some time, but not that the VL series is starting to hit the market full steam. It could also prove to be a big problem for SEG. They ruled the "purpose designed low price" DD arena for quite a while because they were first to market, but have they lost the edge? >> The first question is whether SEG ever had the edge they claimed. If their desktop gross margins were really neagative as seems likely (and this would be before allowing for any return on their considerable investment in all their component manufacturing), they certainly did not. Second MXTR is also full of BS if they are now the price leaders while earning totally unacceptable margins (lest we forget this would be 10 or 12%, not 2%). You could only conclude they are after market share. Can the price leaders withstand all this pain until a couple companies go belly up? -Z