Things are getting worse by the week for Western Digital.
The Irvine, California-based maker of hard disk drives announced this week that it will recall approximately 400,000 of its 6.8GB per platter Caviar desktop hard drives, its flagship product, because of a faulty internal chip. The chip, which affects the disk drive motor, causes problems to erupt in about six to twelve months, said observers.
A hard drive is the most common way to store data on a computer.
Last week, the company announced that losses for its first fiscal quarter, ending October 2, will come in at between $1.20 and $1.30 per share, greater than the then-consensus loss estimate of $1.07.
The hard drive recall will likely result in even larger financial losses, said analysts, and will further increase the pressure on a company that in some ways is falling behind its closest competitors in a fierce market. Although hard drive shipments for the industry as a whole continue to increase annually, prices are dropping faster.