Hard Disk Drive Shortage May Persist Through 2013

By Douglas Perry
published

There is quite a bit of confusing speculation about how long the computer industry will have to deal with the shortage of hard drives caused by the Thailand flood.

IHS, for example, believes that the situation will gradually improve beginning in Q1 2012 and could even result in excess supply as the currently added production of HDDs outside of Thailand is added to the production ramp as fabs in the country return to full production capability.

However, there are much more pessimistic analysts, such as John Rydning from IDC, which believe that the impact will be felt into 2013.

"I think the most painful period will occur now through February of next year," Rydning said in a quote published by Computerworld. "We expect the situation will improve, but it won't feel as if things are back to normal until 2013. "Rydning believes that HDD makers will eb able to meet "immediate demand" in the second half of 2012.

However, for now, the shortage is already forcing computer buyers to buy what is available and not what they want. Computerworld quotes Lenovo stating that some buyers will have to settle for off-spec HDDs in its products. Computerworld said that 750 GB, 320 GB, 250 GB and 160 GB drives are unavailable for some Thinkpad notebooks. Western Digital, which was hardest hit by the flood, recently said that it has restarted its hard drive production in one of its buildings, while all other facilities "remain under approximately two feet of water."

Douglas Perry
68 Comments Comment from the forums
  • digitalzom-b
    Good for Ultrabook sales... might as well pay 1000 dollars for something with a 256GB SSD instead of something with a 250GB HDD with the same specs ;_;.

    That said, time to make SSD more affordable! :( Going to be a sad year for anyone that wants to build a PC on a budget though.
    Reply
  • de5_Roy
    not another one again. how many of these have come out including this one? 5, 6 or more may be. everyone keeps saying hdd shortage will persist for a long time. how about taking measures to lower ssd prices? if a company like intel can take steps to lower ultrabooks costs why not do the same with ssd?
    Reply
  • digitalzom-b
    de5_roynot another one again. how many of these have come out including this one? 5, 6 or more may be. everyone keeps saying hdd shortage will persist for a long time. how about taking measures to lower ssd prices? if a company like intel can take steps to lower ultrabooks costs why not do the same with ssd?
    I feel like they need to figure out their stability and firmware issues first... cough ocz...
    Reply
  • classzero
    I call "BS" this is a ploy to keep inflated prices.
    Reply
  • billybobser
    production will be up to previous levels in q2 2012 prolly, but what will elevate prices is greed, and I do agree, that it will be another year (if not more) for hdd sanity.

    Only think I can suggest is that you veer away from hard disks, and make is as unprofittable as possible to sell them at rediculous prices. Lowering demand.

    Reply
  • irvine5000
    ^ Agreed. Anything to keep prices up.
    Reply
  • ojas
    Seems like a battle of the analysts now...
    Reply
  • zanny
    I think this is called a market with high demand and no supply. We need venture capitalists to invest in some hard drive manufacturers not concentrated in Thailand, and such a company would make a killing using commonplace fabriciation tech.

    The only concern is that it would need to be headquartered somewhere not in the US or in a county that bows to the will of US law, because any new startup hardware company will get sued every day and night for patent and trademark infringements if the nation it is established in has the horrible patent / copyright system the US has.
    Reply
  • DSpider
    "Hard Disk Drive Shortage May Persist Through 2013"

    What I got from this is that they will return to normal in 2014. Even though English is not my native language, I think you meant "persist till 2013"

    Anyway, I see vendors are still being dicks about older stock, selling Samsung Spinpoint F1's (which date back to 2006-2007) at insane prices. They're clearly taking advantage of the flooding situation instead of just being happy they can finally get rid of them.
    Reply
  • What group is IHS, what group is IDC? Please don't reference acronyms to businesses that aren't very known in articles without spelling it out first. Journalism 101.
    Reply