News - WD confirms HDD price rises due to rare earth shortage

[HEXUS]

China has a virtual monopoly on many key elements and is restricting supply.

Read more.

[miniyazz]

D'oh.

Sounds as though it shouldn't affect the overall trend too much though. 2 & 3TB drive prices will likely continue to fall faster than this price rise will affect them.

[pauldarkside]

According to HEXUS sources in the channel, hard drive giant Western Digital has begun notifying its partners that they can expect to thee the price

Lisp?

Seeing as REEs are used in pretty much every gadget available these days, wouldn't this be bumping the price of all tech, not just hard drives?

[mikerr]

Japan has recently found a new plentiful source of REEs
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_890121.html

[OilSheikh]

As long as SSD prices are not affected , we are all good ?

[HW_90]

That's actually a good idea on China's part, means more people will start up businesses in China and so more people there will get jobs.