Seagate, Western Digital slash hard drive warranties

In a bid to save money and redirect money towards product development, hard disk makers Seagate and Western Digital have separately announced plans to reduce the warranties on their hard disk drives (HDDs). In many cases, this will leave products with between one and three years of warranty, though enterprise-level drives remain unaffected. The warranties for Seagate HDDs will be reduced as of Dec. 31, while WD is expected to follow suit on Jan. 2.

Seagate told Computerworld that the move was "to be more consistent with those commonly applied throughout the consumer electronics and technology industries." According to the company, the money saved will be redirected towards "technology innovation and unique product features that drive value for our customers."

The Seagate Momentus XT, which we spotlighted in November, will see its warranty period slashed from five to three years, while certain HDDs for desktop and laptops will have their warranties cut from five years to just one year.

According to The Register, WD is understood to be reducing warranties for its Caviar Blue, Caviar Green and Scorpio Blue drives from three years to two years. When quizzed, WD denied that the move to reduce warranties is related to the flooding in Thailand, which has affected several major companies' ability to manufacture products.

A reduction in warranty is obviously an annoyance to consumers, especially since current indications point to no corresponding decrease in prices. Unfortunately, years of mergers and acquisitions in the hard disk drive industry means that there is now no real competition available to curb arbitrary moves.

Indeed, Western Digital's purchase of Hitachi's hard disk drive business was approved last month, while a Seagate has just announced the acquisition of Samsung's hard disk drive business today. Too much of a coincidence, perhaps?

(This graphic from Wikipedia helps explain the history of mergers and acquisitions.)

For more:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at The Register

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