Seagate Unleashes 750GB Desktop PC Hard Drive!

[Kalo]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

That's true. Ahhh.. If only 10K RPM drives are cheaper..

I hear ya, I hear ya...will get one when they are cheaper.

[SAMSAMHA]

MMH, I remember that Adrian has huge connection with seagate, maybe he can get one for me somehow.

[Chai]

Very unlikely, because the demand for such drive is virtually non existance. Even if the 74GB Raptor is half the price today, I seriously doubt people will still buy it because the 7200rpm drives are still 2 times more than WD740 at the same price, which means very low demand = higher costs.

[Papercut]

Originally Posted by Chai

Very unlikely, because the demand for such drive is virtually non existance. Even if the 74GB Raptor is half the price today, I seriously doubt people will still buy it because the 7200rpm drives are still 2 times more than WD740 at the same price, which means very low demand = higher costs.

<marketing rant>
Create demand then. Personally I think the marketing for WD Raptors has been less than stellar. Up until recently I thought that they were a waste of money but then I begin to hear about how much difference it actually makes in stuff that matters to me, not just HDTach, PCMark and all the other synthetic bs you see in most reviews.

So basically I think they need to sell the benefits of a faster hard drive and make people aware that the speed does not just manifest itself in benchmarks or I/O intensive stuff like maybe video editing.

</marketing rant>

[PsYkHoTiK]

Well one thing that you guys didn't mention is the market segmentation...

*flexes business mind*
Costs and economics of scale is one thing. I'm sure the costs of such a drive is expensive in its own right. I mean it has to last for a few years at such performance levels.

But exclusitivity is also another thing. It's marketed towards the highend market, not for mainstream. Therefore they will price accordingly even if its two or three times what it costs them.

Pricing != cost of goods. Pricing is a strike between costs and how much the consumer is WILLING to pay for a particular product. For highend markets, people generally are willing to pay more, regardless of what the cost of that particular good is.

I dare say if they priced it lower, sales won't pick up any bit more. Why? Well the raptors will loose their exclusitivity that they enjoy now. Not every one has a raptor. People idolize and want it (creates demand.) If every one had em, we wouldn't perceive that now would we (the ooh I wish I had one feeling - shown above)?

Which goes back to why new products are more expensive during release than they are further down. Why? People will pay more for newer stuff. Not really so much cost initial costs are higher (they may impact but never to such a significant degree.)

Kay back to topic...

[Papercut]

Originally Posted by PsYkHoTiK

Pricing != cost of goods. Pricing is a strike between costs and how much the consumer is WILLING to pay for a particular product. For highend markets, people generally are willing to pay more, regardless of what the cost of that particular good is.

I dare say if they priced it lower, sales won't pick up any bit more. Why? Well the raptors will loose their exclusitivity that they enjoy now. Not every one has a raptor. People idolize and want it (creates demand.) If every one had em, we wouldn't perceive that now would we (the ooh I wish I had one feeling - shown above)?

I kind of disagree. Customer perceived value - going back to what you said in the 1st paragraph I quoted. Right now I think the perceived value of a Raptor is lower than what they are charging for it - this is a combination of the benefits perceived as well as the price. That's why I think if they are able to create a more positive perception of the product, they will sell more, but I also think that lowering the price will still have a positive effect on demand.

Basically it's like..."A Raptor costs so much more than a normal hard drive, why should I pay the extra?" I think they should try and change the mentality to something like, "A Raptor doesn't cost that much more than a normal hard drive, and it does perform a lot better". Then sales should increase significantly

[Chai]

Originally Posted by Papercut

I kind of disagree. Customer perceived value - going back to what you said in the 1st paragraph I quoted. Right now I think the perceived value of a Raptor is lower than what they are charging for it - this is a combination of the benefits perceived as well as the price. That's why I think if they are able to create a more positive perception of the product, they will sell more, but I also think that lowering the price will still have a positive effect on demand.

Basically it's like..."A Raptor costs so much more than a normal hard drive, why should I pay the extra?" I think they should try and change the mentality to something like, "A Raptor doesn't cost that much more than a normal hard drive, and it does perform a lot better". Then sales should increase significantly

Yup, I completely agree with this. I bought WD740 not because I want exclusitivity, but performance that I can really see. And another reason why I bought WD740 because of recent price drop to below RM600, even Fok thought it was a lot cheaper than it used to.

[PsYkHoTiK]

You may say that but most others buy it anyways. And chai, isn't the performance level you get itself exclusive to that hard drive itself (i meant exclusive in a broad sense that covers all aspects)?

Thats why I said pricing is a balance. If you feel that way, it maybe thats why all of us aren't in their market. I wouldn't pay that much for a hard drive. Like I said, market segmentation. We aren't part of that market segment. They didn't market it to everyone. I'm with chai. If they had a crazy discount and I had cash to burn, I would jump for it. But only when the price drops to my demand level.

What is the reason for all business? Shareholder wealth maximization (finance.) Maximizing profits comes in turn with that. So if I can sell a raptor much cheaper but I'll know people are willing to pay so much more, do you think I will price it cheap? Seems silly of me if I did right? I would be obligated to get the most profit I could.

Pricing consists of Cost of Goods (materials, labor, and transportation) and like I said Value to the customer. (Engineers don't understand this lol -try asking a business major and other technical majors)

You guys gotta look at some economics graphs. Especially the price demand graph for luxury good (luxury = exclusive = performance -in this case) You'll noticed that in the graph, demand increases when price increases. Why? Perceived value actually increases along with price. Likewise if it drops.

I am approaching the argument from a company point of view not the consumer point of view (although not ignoring it.) Why? Coz the company sets the price, not the consumer.

An example of a company lowering the price of a "luxury" item would be Chevrolet with their Corvette Z06. They made in all sense a superb performing car that has racing pedegree (LeMans winner - C5R & C6R) but they priced it lower. In fact 75k USD. They tout performance of a Ford GT for half the price. Why isn't it selling like hot cakes? Coz its not priced as a luxury good. Eventhough it is. Demand for it would be so much higher if it increased its price and kept its exclusitivity status. True enough volume may be slower, but demand may be higher and profit per unit would increase, hence more profits. You can never use economics of scale when it comes to luxury goods. Its N/A,

The raptor belongs in the luxury goods catergory. Why? It's a highend product. Infact, speedwise, nothing is faster than it. Exclusive, expensive, fast, and wanted by all, bought by some. Thats the effect of luxury goods.

[Adrian Wong]

PsY is right in that sense. The cost of the Raptor may be 50% more than a 7200 RPM hard drive, but because it's marketed as a high-end product, it will sell for 2-3 times more than a 7200 RPM hard drive.

It's the same thing with SCSI and IDE hard drives. The hard drives themselves are similar - they cost the same to make. Only the interface and controller chips differ. Even if SCSI controllers are 20X more expensive than IDE controllers, they still won't account for the huge price difference between the SCSI and IDE drives.

But let's come back to topic...

Like it or not, capacity is what most people are after. Thanks to broadband and well, better quality media, people are just filling up their hard drives like nobody's business.

I'm sure Dashken could do with a couple of these babies. LOL!

[Papercut]

Interesting points PsY, especially about the Chevrolet. Personally I still think that the demand for a Raptor will go up if the price goes down, but I guess we'll never know unless it actually happens