HDDs Return to Pre-Flood Prices
If you put off your upgrade plans following the 2011 Thailand Floods, now is a great time to consider expanding your computer or network's storage capabilities.
In addition to killing well over 200 people and displacing millions in the region, the July 2011 floods in Thailand provided some rather dramatic shocks to the storage market with the subsequent drop of production capacity causing delays in shipments, price increases and not coincidentally, strong profits for hard drive manufacturers.
New information from Dynamite Data’s Kris Kubicki and Extreme Tech has revealed some rather promising developments and revealed three distinct trends. Firstly, mechanical hard drive’s dollar per gigabyte prices have returned to pre-flood levels, and secondly, that solid state drive dollar per gigabyte prices are remaining stable and thirdly that SSD storage density has significantly increased.
Before we begin, it is important to note that the data provided is averages from Dynamite Data's database that have been weighted by popularity and thus should provide a more accurate representation of the industry as a whole than using comparing a small basket of products.
1. Mechanical Hard Drive Prices
The floods in July 2011 caused HDD prices to increase 72.7% from $0.055 per GB to $0.095 per GB and as indicated in the above chart, the market has since corrected for this spike by steadily reducing prices back to pre-flood levels. Since prices seem to have reached their current market equilibrium, we don’t expect to see any further price reductions in the near future unless we see the introduction of intervening technologies such as Western Digital’s Helium Hard Drives.
The data also indicates that we cannot reasonably accuse storage manufacturers of price gouging consumers in the aftermath of the flood (retailers and OEMs are a different matter entirely). Rather, it seems that the strong profits registered by manufacturers can instead be attributed to the retiring of less profitable product lines and shift towards drives with smaller, higher density storage platters.

OCZ have 5 year warranties.
OCZ have 5 year warranties.
OCZ doesn't make HDDs.
Example: Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA $35 before floods, $60 right now...
I'll believe that when I see it myself, thanks. The pair of 2TB drives that I bought not that long before the flood (phew) are still about 40% more than I paid for them, £145 versus £105 (inc VAT).
OCZ doesn't make Hard Disk Drives, it makes SSDs. Onus was speaking about the warranty periods for Hard Disk Drives, and is correct in his statement that warranty periods have been shortened.
I don't feel HDD prices are at pre-flood pricing just yet. I can recall purchasing a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 from Newegg for $50 (on sale) just months before the flooding. Currently, the cheapest 1TB HDD on Newegg is $70, while the rest are $75 or more.
Not sure where this charts prices come from, but I still can't get a 1 or 2TB drive as cheap as pre-flood. They have another $10-20 to go. WD's 1TB at newegg is $75. I got my last 2 1TB drives for $55 & $59 before the flood and I think they went below that. The 2TB has another $20 to go also as they are still $99 or more and as a bonus for all their profits they killed out warranties. They have all shrunk and charge a premium to get them back. So they overcharge you for less warranty, and completely screw you for the same warranty you had before.
Where are they getting the flood pricing data? IMHO it is wrong by a HUGE amount. $75 is a far cry from $55. $20 doesn't sound like much until you realize the % here. They keep pocketing HUGE quarters.
Example: Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA $35 before floods, $60 right now...
Other reason for a 250GB drive costing that much is probably because supplies on older equipment are typically not so much in demand and so they raise prices a bit. Newer equipment usually are in heavy demand, and hence the competition is somewhat fiercer affecting the pricing.