In the first and second quarters, shortages will make themselves felt

Nov 11, 2011 09:05 GMT  ·  By

The past month has not gone without a significant level of attention given to the crisis in Thailand and, as authorities are doing their best to curb the worst of the destruction, each level of the world economy, in this case the IT industry, is dealing with the fallout in its own way.

In this case, the effects of the flood on the PC market have been studied by IDC (International Data Corporation).

The floods didn't precisely have any direct impact on PC makers, but this isn't a very big consolation.

After all, as has been said several times, the HDD industry was very badly hit, with over a dozen factories closed or disrupted.

This includes both HDD facilities and plants that make HDD components.

As such, since HDDs are an integral part of the PC industry, personal computers will suffer, even if not right away.

The ongoing fourth quarter of 2012 will not show much deficit of supply, since most HDDs were already shipped when the troubles started.

This means that the first and probably second quarters of 2012 will be when computers see lower shipments and higher prices.

Smaller PC makers and low-cost products, like netbooks, will bear the brunt of it all.

“The HDD shortage will affect smaller PC vendors and lower priced products most, including netbooks, emerging markets and entry-level consumer PCs,” said Loren Loverde, program vice president of IDC worldwide consumer device trackers.

“However, even the largest vendors are expected to face HDD shortages, particularly for portable PCs where the market is more consolidated. Nevertheless, the shortage will relieve some pressure on pricing and margins, and present some opportunities for strategic share gains among the larger players.”

HDD prices have already gone up by at least 10% and they don't seem to be dropping, even with Nidec back online.