Post by jeffolie on Nov 13, 2011 8:19:56 GMT -6
Govt inflation touts declining PC prices, 2012 prices+CPI up
Slightly off topic, the price of gas separated from the feedstock, crude oil resulting in very small increases in gas prices at the pump. WTIC crude recently declined in to the $70s bounced back toward just under $100, not so much for the price consumers pay for gas at the pump. Why? Demand for gas continues to decline as American vehicles continue to drive less miles, use less gas. Odd, why the higher WTIC prices with less miles driven ... answer exports of gas, crude and even GOLD have increased.
=============================
"... Because of end-of-the-year deals, this is always one of the best times of the year for consumers to buy personal computers.
But don’t expect those times to last much longer.
That’s because shipments of PCs, and the hard-disk drives that go inside them, are set to decline, and their prices will soon go up. The effects of ongoing flooding in Thailand has crippled, and in some cases shut down, production at many hard-drive manufacturing facilities in that country.
Hard-disk makers already have warned about what lies ahead for their industry. In October, Western Digital Corp. WDC +3.22% said the flooding in Thailand would have a “significant impact” on its operations and that it will be a stretch to meet customer demand this year.
Click to Play The rising costs of ThanksgivingThanks in part to the recent boom in crop and livestock prices, Thanksgiving dinner will take a bigger bite from the wallets of U.S. consumers this year. Joe Barrett has details.
Seagate Technology STX +0.33% also has warned it could have a hard time getting the parts it needs to meet production levels.
Even Apple Inc. AAPL -0.13% Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company’s Mac computers will be affected, as it is almost certain “there will be an overall industry shortage of disk drives.”
PC sales in the last quarter of this year will likely turn out to be the equivalent of a giant billboard, advertising great things, but hiding some ugliness behind it, according to a new report from technology-research firm IDC.
According to IDC, most of the PC production for the fourth quarter already has taken place, or can be finished up with the existing drives still in the computer makers’ proverbial storage shed.
So much for the good news.
“PCs should be relatively plentiful for holiday sales,” said John Rydning, a research vice president at IDC. “[But] pricing will likely go even higher next quarter, since [hard-disk drive] shortages will be even more acute by then as any existing HDD inventory is depleted.”
With PC shipments expected to potentially decline by more than 20% in the first quarter of the year, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that manufacturers are likely to raise prices due to component shortages and having to shift production to new facilities.
Currently, the average price of a notebook PC is around $750, while desktops come out to about $600. PC vendors now pay about $40 to $45 for a hard drive and consumers should expect those prices to soon rise, and be passed on to them in the coming months.
Rydning said that hard-disk prices already are 20% to 40% higher than they were in the beginning of October, or just prior to the latest round of floods in Thailand. He added that PC makers will be paying higher prices as well this quarter, and after the first of the year.
The math is simple: Lower supply plus greater demand equals higher prices. If a new computer is on your wish list this year, you best be shopping now, because you probably aren’t going to find any great after-Christmas deals.
“Buying a PC in January with a gift card could mean either higher PC prices by then, or fewer PCs to choose from,” Rydning remarked.
www.marketwatch.com/story/santas-coming-and-higher-pc-prices-will-follow-2011-11-11
Slightly off topic, the price of gas separated from the feedstock, crude oil resulting in very small increases in gas prices at the pump. WTIC crude recently declined in to the $70s bounced back toward just under $100, not so much for the price consumers pay for gas at the pump. Why? Demand for gas continues to decline as American vehicles continue to drive less miles, use less gas. Odd, why the higher WTIC prices with less miles driven ... answer exports of gas, crude and even GOLD have increased.
=============================
"... Because of end-of-the-year deals, this is always one of the best times of the year for consumers to buy personal computers.
But don’t expect those times to last much longer.
That’s because shipments of PCs, and the hard-disk drives that go inside them, are set to decline, and their prices will soon go up. The effects of ongoing flooding in Thailand has crippled, and in some cases shut down, production at many hard-drive manufacturing facilities in that country.
Hard-disk makers already have warned about what lies ahead for their industry. In October, Western Digital Corp. WDC +3.22% said the flooding in Thailand would have a “significant impact” on its operations and that it will be a stretch to meet customer demand this year.
Click to Play The rising costs of ThanksgivingThanks in part to the recent boom in crop and livestock prices, Thanksgiving dinner will take a bigger bite from the wallets of U.S. consumers this year. Joe Barrett has details.
Seagate Technology STX +0.33% also has warned it could have a hard time getting the parts it needs to meet production levels.
Even Apple Inc. AAPL -0.13% Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company’s Mac computers will be affected, as it is almost certain “there will be an overall industry shortage of disk drives.”
PC sales in the last quarter of this year will likely turn out to be the equivalent of a giant billboard, advertising great things, but hiding some ugliness behind it, according to a new report from technology-research firm IDC.
According to IDC, most of the PC production for the fourth quarter already has taken place, or can be finished up with the existing drives still in the computer makers’ proverbial storage shed.
So much for the good news.
“PCs should be relatively plentiful for holiday sales,” said John Rydning, a research vice president at IDC. “[But] pricing will likely go even higher next quarter, since [hard-disk drive] shortages will be even more acute by then as any existing HDD inventory is depleted.”
With PC shipments expected to potentially decline by more than 20% in the first quarter of the year, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that manufacturers are likely to raise prices due to component shortages and having to shift production to new facilities.
Currently, the average price of a notebook PC is around $750, while desktops come out to about $600. PC vendors now pay about $40 to $45 for a hard drive and consumers should expect those prices to soon rise, and be passed on to them in the coming months.
Rydning said that hard-disk prices already are 20% to 40% higher than they were in the beginning of October, or just prior to the latest round of floods in Thailand. He added that PC makers will be paying higher prices as well this quarter, and after the first of the year.
The math is simple: Lower supply plus greater demand equals higher prices. If a new computer is on your wish list this year, you best be shopping now, because you probably aren’t going to find any great after-Christmas deals.
“Buying a PC in January with a gift card could mean either higher PC prices by then, or fewer PCs to choose from,” Rydning remarked.
www.marketwatch.com/story/santas-coming-and-higher-pc-prices-will-follow-2011-11-11