🚀 go-pugleaf

Summary: Price does not necessarily mean quality
References: <780049@hpvcfs1.HP.COM> <2330@infmx.UUCP>
Reply-To: c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Walter C3arlip)
Followup-To: /dev/null
Distribution: na
Organization: Dept. of Mathematics, Univ. of Chicago
From: c3ar@daisy.uchicago.edu (Walter C3arlip)
Path: daisy!c3ar

Warning: Flame ON

In article <2330@infmx.UUCP> cortesi@infmx.UUCP (David Cortesi) writes:
>In article <780049@hpvcfs1.HP.COM> stevem@hpvcfs1.HP.COM (Steve Miller) writes:
>>I have another friend that wants to buy an inexpensive 20-40 Meg external
>>hard disk and I don't know what to recommend.  Is there any lower cost 
>>hard-disk vendor that's had a good track record?
>
>Does this approach not seem just a trace short-sighted?
>Every hard-disk posting seems to assume that price is the most important
>attribute of a drive.  Price is to be considered before anything else.
>I think that is very foolish!  
>
>There may be exceptions, but in a market as competitive as that for
>hard disks, a higher price will reflect a higher quality.  

I could not let this pass without defending Steve's posting: Steve
explicitly asked for hard-disk vendors with a *good track record*.  
This is a completely reasonable question to pose to the net.

It is definitely not true that a higher price reflects higher quality: in
fact higher price is much more likely to reflect greater brand name
recognition. It would be very easy to give numerous examples of this
phenomenon (e.g., IBM manufactured pcs versus some of the IBM clones), but
lets stick to disk drives.  Many of the available disk drives use identical
drive mechanisms--the differences lying in software, packaging, and
support. When I purchased my external drive (a generic box with Quantum
40Mb mechanism) I did a lot of comparison shopping.  The drive I bought
came in a sturdy well-designed box with all the features of better known
"brand-name" drives, but cost hundreds of dollars less than better known
drives with the same Quantum 40.  I heard from NET postings that the
company I used has an excellent track record with respect to repairs, and
the drive came with an unusually long warranty and excellent software.
Price and quality simply do not correlate.

Recently, I have also been looking into removable cartridge drives.  Again,
these drives all use the same cartridge mechanisms and the differences are
all in packaging, software, and support.  None-the-less, prices range from
$850.00 to $1799.00 for a single cartridge drive.  The general trend is for
the better known companies, i.e., the ones that advertise more, to charge
more for their drives.  I don't believe the price gives any indication of
quality in this situation either.

Flame OFF

--Walter
_____________________________________________________________________________
Walter C3arlip 				c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu
(the "3" is silent)			c3ar%zaphod@UCHIMVS1.bitnet
_____________________________________________________________________________



_____________________________________________________________________________
Walter C3arlip 				c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu
(the "3" is silent)			c3ar%zaphod@UCHIMVS1.bitnet
_____________________________________________________________________________