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Randal Whittle writes: > Now I agree that what we want is a smaller drive for our notebook > machines--in a 2.5" factor, and I don't argue that it would typically cost > more--but at nearly $1,795, 5 to 6 TIMES as much? > > Clearly, this is *way* overboard. 2 times--good. 3 times--okay. I > think it not unreasonable to pay about $1 per meg for a specialty-type > drive in a market where the going price is 35 to 40 cents per meg or less. > But paying almost twice that premium at $1.80 per meg is pretty ridiculous. > > IBM Marketing (which generally oversees price setting) has regularly > shown themselves to be pretty inept. This is just yet another example. > Sometimes I wonder how the engineers who design these wonderful toys > (the TP's are clearly winners--great products in a competetive marketplace) > still have a job, given the masterful job of pricing the other bozos do. As much as we'd all like to buy 1.2 gig notebook hard disks for rock bottom prices direct from IBM the minute they roll out of the research labs, I don't think their decision not to get into this type of commodity market constitutes marketing ineptitude. For quite a few people these prices are worth paying. For those of us who can't afford them, IBM is prudent enough to let us wait a month or two. If you think this is a mistake you should check IBM's recent quarterly reports to its stockholders.