THE SHORTAGE OF HARD DISKS has sent prices spinning upwards. Systems builders have reported hard disk prices rising by up to a third in recent weeks and say they will be forced to increase the prices of systems as a result.
Taiwanese companies report hard disk prices rising on a weekly basis with disks for laptops affected, as well as the 80GB desktop models we reported on earlier. Taiwan imports over 150,000 drives for it deomestic market annually.
Companies there complain of short supply from Seagate, IBM Western Digital and Maxtor. They fear that adding to the price of systems at this time may impact the hoped-for pre-Christmas sales boom.