InsaneTek

Back in May, there was a story released about how HDD prices are staying high even though production and shipments are up to pre-Thailand-floods levels. Well, a new ISH iSuppli Memory & Storage Market Brief report backs up last month's story, and predicts that prices are likely to stay inflated until 2014. Shipments are expected to return to pre-flood 2011 status in Q3 2012, which shows how much supply has rebounded.

Fang Zhang, who is an analyst for storage systems at IHS, said,

"HDD manufacturers now have greater pricing power than they did in 2011, allowing them to keep ASPs steady. With the two mega-mergers between Seagate/Samsung and Western Digital/Hitachi GST, the two top suppliers held 85 percent of HDD market share in the first quarter 2012. This was up from 62 percent in the third quarter of 2011, before the mergers. The concentration of market share has resulted in an oligarchy where the top players can control pricing and are able to keep ASPs at a relatively high level."

 Read the original article here.