Quote:
Originally Posted by Zetmolm
Sure. Asia is so small that a flood in one part automatically affects factories almost on the other side of the continent.  |
There were floods in multiple countries. Japan had issues from the earthquake/tsunami. Thailand flooded. Issues in China, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by afv011
It certainly affected Hard Drive manufacturers.
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As well as many other industries. Thailand is a major hub for electronics parts due to their cheap labor, and often lax laws.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zetmolm
There's not a single e-reader that contains a hard drive, let alone a hard drive manufactured in Thailand. And as to other components, well, if there was a shortage that affected makers of readers we should have seen a shortage of readers in our stores and/or increasing prices. None of that happened.
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Most ereaders aren't hard drive based, but that wasn't the only thing effected. Also, one thing that helped stave off rising costs was that many ebook readers were simplified. They don't have all the frills they used to. Sony dropped the aluminum bodies. Kindle no longer has the keyboards, etc. Also, if the issues with supply largely effected the display manufacturing process, it would have kept things fairly localized, plus with having multiple plants, it could have just effected costs and supply wouldn't have been hurt enough to cause shortages. Not to mention, some large scale manufacturers have contracts to help regulate costs, so if the cost to make something goes up, but they're contracted to sell them at a certain cost, the part maker has to eat it, while the final product doesnt' change in price to the consumer.