At an event held Thursday (25) in São Paulo, Western digital, one of the largest manufacturers of data storage devices in the world, spoke about its market positioning, launch strategies, business vision and much more.
TechSmart had the chance to cover the event, where we got to chat a bit Alexandre Jannonni, country manager at Western Digital. During the interview, we discussed topics such as the launch of SSDs for the PS5, national production, the computer market and the crisis with electronic components.
TC: In 2021, Sony released an update to the PS5 that allows expansion of the console’s SSD storage, and Western Digital is one of Sony’s nominated manufacturers. In fact, you recently released a modified version of the SN850 that comes with a box that makes it clear that it’s meant for the PS5.
Are there any plans to bring this device to Europe? If so, do you plan to start producing domestically as this would make the product cheaper for the consumer?
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WD: Yes, there are plans to bring these products to Europe, but as you mentioned, because they have a high added value, some distributors are a bit afraid to import these products and eventually get them in stock.
That’s why we’ve tried to work with partners like KaBum!, for example, who have the capacity to bring and offer these products with minimal stock, so to speak. This way they can really make products available to enthusiasts and customers who are really very specific.
As for the local production of SSDs, especially those with greater precision, we have no plans for Europe. These are very complex products to produce, starting the production process in Japan and then being brought to Thailand for completion, which would require a very high investment to produce in Europe.
It’s worth remembering that the European market is mainly for PlayStation, much more so than Xbox or Nintendo, so it’s certainly in our interest to make these products available through online channels here.
TC: And as for the component crisis. Did you have some problems? Will they pass?
WD: Yes, we went through a very serious critical phase. We had a period with a shortage of some products.
The biggest problem in the foundries, at the beginning of the process, was who collects the materials to get to the conductor and the integrated circuits.
At the beginning of the pandemic, no one really knew what was going to happen and many decided to close the factories and send the workers away, but about three months later there was a boom in sales of technology products. The problem is that when you close a factory of this size, you can’t get back up and running in a week, and it takes more than a year to get things back to normal.
And this period was very bad, because there was a lack of raw material for everyone. So yes, we went through a period where inventories were lacking a lot, but over time things started to normalize and now I’d say it’s practically in balance and with a lot of product to sell.
TC: AMD recently spoke of concerns about the PC market after the pandemic boom, as things are now getting back to normal. In the case of Western Digital, how do you see this return to what it was before the pandemic in terms of consumption?
WD: As we see it, there was a level in 2019, 2020 and 2021, this level rose and at the end of the pandemic, when the transition from personal to business notebooks began, many companies decided to update their equipment with the return of face-to-face work there was a stabilization, but now it is very clear that this period was a boom and we need to get back to the reality of the 2019 levels.
From a results point of view, we continue to supply the market and understand this decline, but as our company is present in different sectors (structures, servers, data centers, the game market itself), we have the capacity to “cover” this reduction in the demand, something that is felt more strongly by other companies that are more specific, such as manufacturers of video cards, processors, etc.
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