To: Ian@SI who wrote (9733 ) 8/16/1998 12:45:00 PM From: fiberman Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Wouldn't it make sense, if Chuck & Co. put out a brief announcement telling people that their drives are used in the Imac? That will be a complete free P.R., and should help the shareholders, if that really is the case that WDC has this business. I know that AAPL does not use any exclusive drives, and has at least 2 sources for eachg machine, but I am hoping that WDC is one of those sources. I have a very close friend who works for DELL (He is also a big loser with WDC stock), he informed me that they are forced to have at least 2 or 3 sources for every machine, so they are guranteed a good flow of products no matter what happens. Unfortunatelly for us WDC has lost some of their business at DELL to MXTR. MXTR currently has about 50% of the business at DELL, but my buddy tells me that WDC is coming in very strong, and he would not be surprised to see some design wins for them. DELL is also keeping a close eye on the WDC/IBM relationship. This could benefit WDC a great deal. Who knows, maybe one fine day, IBM buys out WDC? If that happenes, then IBM is back at helm again. They will service the entire market segment. Afterall, the new WDC campus in Rochester, MN, is right next to IBM. According to my brother, who works for IBM, majority of the IBM computer products are manufactured in the Rochester area. That would make a perfect sense for IBM. The $64K question is "Does IBM want to get more involved in this commodity business? Any discussion guys? Also another wild card here is the new "Conner Technology"!!! Another good friend of mine who used to be with SEG was just hired as a "VP" for this new start up which Finis Conner started. Their goal is to go aftyer the desk top market very aggresively and put SEG out of business. They want to sell high capacity drives under $1000.00 and still make money. They are planning to use outside suppliers for the amnufacturing of these drives. Apparently there are some companies in the Mainland China who can do that for them. Have you guys heard of anybody over there? Will their quality be to the standard? Or will they be another JTS???? I think the jury is out of that.
