India, which is the second largest market for drives in the region after China, witnessed a 30 per cent growth in demand during the last one year. At present, hard drives are sold in the $95 to $100 per unit range worldwide.

This follows a continuous downtrend in prices over the past few years. However, the industry is set to emerge from the downward spiral with prices hardening to a high of $120 per unit over the next few quarters.

Prices have been dropping continuously over the past 16 months. As such most manufacturers of drives will have to raise the average selling price between the $140 to $145 range.

As per estimates nearly 142 million drives would be sold worldwide by December end, at an averageselling price of $130 per unit. This is a substantial drop from the average selling price of $170 per unit for the nearly 127 million drives sold in the calendar year 1997.

According to Ken Larsen vice-president operations of Western Digital, a leading manufacturer of hard disk drives, drive manufacturers have no recourse other than to raise prices beyond the $ 100 mark. "The days of sub-$100 drives are over as it is no more feasible to do so", he said.

Larsen was addressing reporters at a press conference to announce the debut of Western Digital into the Indian market along with IT Distributor Servex. The company is showcasing its products at the IT Comdex exhibition in the capital.