Seagate shows there’s life in hard drives yet

A LOT OF FOLKS are so busy writing obituaries for the hard drive that they’ve forgotten that the old stager is alive and well. Spry, even.

Seagate reported financials yesterday, saying it could not satisfy demand for spinning disks, with shipments up 20 per cent year on year. Revenue shot up from $3 billion to $3.4 billion and profits rose remarkably, from $140 million to $403 million.

Flash might be the Next Big Thing but the pricing gulf will need to become something closer to a puddle before buyers change the habits of a lifetime. Remember, when Apple announced the MacBook Air, it stipulated that adding 200MHz to the chip speed and replacing the hard drive with a lower capacity Flash drive will cost you a cool £829.

Of course, as volumes build, Flash will close the gap to the point that some of us will think “yup, I’ll have one of those in my next PC”. But it’s not going to happen this year - or next year either. µ