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

To: CPAMarty who wrote (5704)	2/27/1999 2:17:00 PM
From: Henry W Singor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Drive Prices. Comparing drive prices between Oct 98 and now at one large distributer I found the following. On Oct 8 98 they advertised the Seagate ST34321A 4.3GB drive for $135. The same drive today sells for $135. In both cases this was the cheapest 4.3GB drive available. The others are a little tricky to compare since older models have been replaced with newer higher capacity per platter drives. In Oct 98 a 4.3GB drive required 2 platters and 3 heads it sold for $135. Now with 2 platters and 3 heads a drive holds 6.4GB and sells for $149. So the price has actually gone up. A 2 platter 4 head drive held 6.4GB and sold for $167 and up. Now a 2 platter 4 head drive holds 8.4GB and sells for $167 and up. EVEN. In addition the 6.4GB drive that sold for $167 in October was a Seagate ST36531A. That same drive sells for $155 now. A 7% reduction over 4 months. Note that these companies are used to price declines of 10-15% every 3 months so in a relative sense these prices are actually going up. (Since Seagate is now shipping a replacement drive for the 36531A that has the same capacity with fewer heads and therefore costs less to produce.) There isn't a lot of point in continuing since the majority of drives that ship will be the 3 head 6.4GB drives, (I learned that from the RDRT thread). For the small price difference I think I would go for the 8.4 but in a $999 machine I would suspect that the $18 difference would go into the PC manufacturers pocket and mean the difference between making a few dollars and losing a few dollars. dirtcheapdrives.com henry

To: CPAMarty who wrote (5704)	2/27/1999 2:53:00 PM
From: Yogi - Paul	Respond to of 9256

Marty, <<Demand Driver>> Nah. Ultimately all these secure distribution systems are doomed to failure. It is simply not possible to transmit content via the internet and protect against unauthorized use. Eventually we will see the music industry adopt a network TV type model where content is free but you must click through advertisements to hear the selection/album. Of course, ad rates would be higher for popular (mass market) artists over more obscure titles. Of course, you would also have to log on and supply valuable micromarketing information to the web site. For instance, Sony would know your taste in music, film, when you are home, when you are at the office, traveling. The ability to sell targeted advertisements that not only fit your individual personality but also your daily circumstance is a powerful and valuable commodity. The "fat pipe" of the future makes the delivery of multimedia content without the necessity of large capacity local storage possible. The ability to track individual consumer profiles and convert that into one-on-one target marketing is more valuable than download fees for Madonna's latest shriek. Yogi