PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Research from GfK has found that the recent floods in Thailand has set hard drive pricing back by 12 months, and could have a widespread effect on the IT and consumer electronics markets.
According to GfK account executive Chris Kennedy-Sloane, in the week following the disaster, external HDD prices rose by eight per cent and 2.5-inch internal storage prices rose by over ten per cent.
Using the example of a 2TB 3.5-inch internal HDD, which apparently represents the best price/storage ratio at this time, Sloane notes that prices for these devices rose from £73 to £90, the same prices as one year previously.
“The consequences are bound to be felt across the wider durables marketplace as well as just in the raw storage marketplace,” said Slone.
“As hard disk drive prices increase, a knock-on effect is expected across many other categories, including set top boxes with recording functions in CE and traditional notebooks or desktop computers. As these categories continue to prove sluggish with notebooks falling one per cent, netbooks down 46 per cent and desktop PCs down 23 per cent, an increase in average selling price derived from storage shortages is liable to result in a crash in sales rather than a revitalised value growth.”
