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

To: Sam who wrote (3815)	6/25/1998 2:04:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9256

It's not eactly the same, but the same kind of question stood for Dell. How could they compete with the larger players gaining market share every quarter and still undercut prices. Obviously direct sales method are key, but you must admit they know how take an order and get it out the door faster than anyone else. <Someone has to maintain inventory, and the OEMs are all trying to eliminate theirs, so its up to their suppliers. And, again, can their cost of production be so much lower than the erstwhile Big Three that they--the "lesser" ones--can be making money while ASPs are dwindling?> It would seem that if a HDD maker was turning inventory faster, keeping their supply chain feeding them on a JIT basis, they could do better than establishedHDD players. Look at Quantum. They do about 14 turns a year. Dell does about 50. If Fujitsu could be getting 20 to 30 turns, would it give them an edge? Any ideas on the inventory turns from other major players? Anyway you look at it, the winning players are going to have to get their inventory turns higher. They are getting pounded with double digit quarterly price declines. Who wins? Regards, Mark