Thai Flooding and SSDs
InSpectrum, a spot market trading firm, shares a viewpoint that the floods in Thailand could increase SSD consumption.
HDD makers have been severely impacted by this disaster, and are projecting lower unit shipments in the fourth quarter as a result.
InSpectrum’s reasoning is that SSDs might be used as a substitute for HDDs that don’t ship because of the flood.
This argument appears not to take into account the significant price difference between an SSD and an HDD. As we explained in depth in the Objective Analysis report Solid State Disk Market Outlook, most PC purchasers look at only a handful of factors when purchasing a PC, and two key ones are price and HDD capacity.
There is indeed a chance that SSDs will substitute for HDDs in PCs due to a shortage provided that the HDD shortage becomes so significant that HDD prices increase by a factor of ten.
How likely is this? Well, if I had a dollar to spend on this bet or on a lottery ticket, I’d take the lottery ticket.