PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Despite strong PC sales, hard drive prices have continued to tumble as competition from flash memory and consumer electronics continue to drive down prices, according to a survey released by iSuppli on Wednesday.
Notebook hard drives were hit hardest with prices falling an average of $33 during the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Desktop drives also took a tumble but price erosion on these was much lower than that of notebook drives, just $1.75 year-on-year.
The report noted that around 134 million hard drives had been shipped during the third quarter of 2007, up from 114 million during the same period in 2006. The increase of 21 per cent was largely put down to growing demand from the consumer electronics industry with consoles and portable media players driving much of the demand.
The report also showed that the most intense price competition was between the six largest vendors – Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Samsung.
