[TheBattman]

I just don't see this as being good in the long-haul for consumers or corporate users. My observation over the last few years is that with the consolidation of HD production, the overall reliability and quality has fallen off. I believe this problem is exacerbated by the few remaining manufacturers building more of their components in China and worse... where QC isn't the biggest priority.

But as this is outside the perusal of US jurisdiction, I don't see there being any regulatory roadblocks.

[skeeter]

I used to buy HDD, I remember the margins being pretty slim for the investment required to manufacture them.

However, I do agree that two players only is not a good thing.

[C210N]

I miss the creme of the market - Micropolis drives.

[Darksheare]

I miss Maxtor.
I have several Maxtor drives, and they haven’t given me problems.

But that’s because their quality was high.
The newer stuff seems to be manufactured as cheaply as possible.

Unless you want to fork out for Solid State Drives.

[Yo-Yo]

Brilliant move for Samsung to unload their HDD production to Seagate.

Spinning media's reports of death have been greatly exaggerated in the past, but it won't be long before SSDs take over most HDD functions in home PC/laptop market, where the volume is.

Seagate and WD will end up being server drive makers.

[ocr1]

Agreed, and sad to see. Samsung was making progress with quality controllers in their SSDs. I wonder if that will continue?

[Buckeye McFrog]

With the research currently underway on flash memory they may become the world’s largest buggy whip manufacturer.

This company seems pretty stupid anyway. When they had a facility in Pittsburgh they were paying everybody 30-40% above market.

[Dick Bachert]

I’ve had three Samsung HDs fail within 2 months of purchase. They DID replace both of them fairly promptly. After the second failure, I went out and purchased a Seagate. It has been running with no problems for nearly 6 years. The last replacement Samsung is still in the box as I was afraid to install the damn thing.

MEMO TO SEAGATE MANAGEMENT: Not sure what you THINK you’ve bought here but start by BURNING DOWN THE SAMSUNG PRODUCTION FACILITY!