Comments on: Would Seagate go private again?

By: Dennis M, Toronto, Ontario

Dennis M, Toronto, Ontario — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:09:00 +0000

A Toronto Canada startup company Valt.X Technologies is developing Hybrid Secure Drives with 32/64GB Solid State, Valt.X Ultra Security Chip and a standard hard disk drive all combined. How about a Seagate, SanDisk merger – the company would be called SeaSand producing Secure Hybrids with all the benefits of Solid State, Capacity of Standard HDD’s and Endpoint Security that actually works.

By: John, Hopkinton, MA

John, Hopkinton, MA — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:56:54 +0000

The problems of Seagate are mostly internal. There are sites in Asia that are under performing. The acquisition of Maxtor has caused a change in the political landscape within Seagate. How could a dead company’s directors taking up important Seagate business and technical positions? Seagate has become Maxtor in execution, with more internal disputes. Its not about SSD. Seagate is really going down. I welcome the reality Bill Watkins is out.

By: Mark Miller, Danville, CA

Mark Miller, Danville, CA — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:43:21 +0000

I have no problem with the information on STX, until you get to the last line and join the chorus of journalists who believe the days of disk drives are numbered. It would be very interesting to see an in-depth, OBJECTIVE article addressing this issue.

First of all, are the advantages of flash memory really that compelling? The new disk drives only consume 7% or less of the battery life and how many laptop users really drop their laptops that often and lose their hard drives? The smaller size of flash memory is really a red herring since most laptop users prefer the current screen and keyboard sizes which ultimately determine the laptop package size.

An objective article could then go on and look at the disdadvantages of flash like limited write cycles, longer write times, no ability to retrieve data from a failed fast chip, charge leakage at gates, and of course pricing.

Currently, a 120 GB, 2.5″ flash drive sells for $500-$600 or higher compared to $60 for an equivalent hard drive. Now the flash phobes all assume pricing will come down substantially. However, many flash manufacturers were losing money before the economy crashed. Sandisk is projected to lose money this and next, while STX and WDC are expected to make money. At a 50% annual decline in SSD prices, it will take SSDs 3 years to just reach parity with current hard drive pricing. Do you think the flash manufacturers can continue to lose money for that long?