In the realm of digital storage, the pendulum of pricing has been swinging notably for USB flash drives. As Solid-state drive (SSD) costs per gigabyte (GB) have been on a downward trajectory, USB flash drive prices have seen a corresponding dip, albeit at a slower pace. The average cost of flash drives, including Multi-Level Cell (MLC), Triple-Level Cell (TLC), and Quad-Level Cell (QLC) variants, has decreased from approximately $0.085/GB to just under $0.079/GB, marking a 7% decline.
In contrast, the landscape for Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) hard disk drives (HDDs) tells a different story. Prices for SAS spinning disk drives per gigabyte have surged from $0.041 to $0.049, representing an 18% increase during the same period. The rationale behind this pricing shift remains somewhat opaque, although the market witnessed a spate of high-capacity HDD launches in 2024, such as Western Digital’s 32TB shingled drive and Toshiba’s 24TB and 28TB models.
Despite the recent fluctuations, flash drive prices had been on a downward trajectory through the first three quarters of 2024, leading to a bottoming out at $0.085/GB. This downward trend followed a peak in prices earlier in the same year, indicating a cyclical nature in the market. The pricing dynamics in late 2023 and early 2024 saw a deliberate slowdown in production by drive manufacturers in a bid to bolster prices and enhance profitability. SSD prices surged to an average of $0.095 per gigabyte by April 2024, marking a substantial 26.67% increase since the autumn of 2023.
Expectations were rife for even higher SSD prices in 2024, but a surge in production outpaced customer demand, leading to a subsequent drop in prices. As for spinning disk drives, encompassing SAS and SATA variants, prices have remained relatively stable, with a marginal uptick from $0.039 to $0.041 post-September 2024. However, under the surface, there has been a substantial 18% escalation in SAS drive prices over the same period.
These insights stem from an exclusive analysis by Computer Weekly, collating weekly drive prices from Amazon.com aggregated by Diskprices.com. The comprehensive dataset, spanning from March 2023 to the present, encompasses over 65,000 drive prices and specifications, with averages computed weekly for different flash drives and spinning disk categories.
While price per gigabyte stands as a pivotal factor for consumers, the total cost of ownership over a drive’s lifespan holds significance, encompassing purchase cost, energy consumption, and maintenance expenses. The data pool covers drives ranging from sub-terabyte capacities to as high as 26TB for HDDs and up to 12TB for SSDs, with an average capacity of 3.8TB per drive available in the market.
In the ever-evolving landscape of storage solutions, the interplay between flash drives and HDDs continues to shape the market, offering users a diverse array of options catering to their specific needs and budget constraints.
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