"Seagate Ships World’s First 8TB Hard Drives"
On 09/13/2014 07:44 AM, BobT wrote:
On Fri, 12 Sep 2014 16:28:44 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
So they're developing technically superior devices that rely on
deteriorating resources. Although mass production is used to lower
prices until some threshold where there is mass appeal for the product
(i.e., the product hits a price point that consumers are willing to
pay), the problem is that helium-filled drives will increase in cost as
there is more fighting over the the diminishing reserve. About when the
HDD makers would expect cost to hit the sweet spot for consumer pricing
is when helium will take off and force increases in the costs of these
HDDs. Did anyone at Seagate or WDC consider where they're going to get
the helium to put inside their HDD cases?
No question helium supplies are tightening, and price rises are to be
expected. But with the stuff now selling, crude, around $70/Mcf (or 7
cents a cubic foot), Helium cost isn't a significant part of the
product price. Even if Helium pricing increases by a factor of 10,
say, it won't matter much to WD.
Keeping the stuff in the drive, on the other hand, does sound like a
challenge. Helium is notoriously able to escape containment. It will
be interesting to see how things shake out.
"shake out" might turn out to be apt.
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