Inquiring minds what to know – Better Value Play: Western Digital Corp. or Seagate Technology PLC?  Remember, you don’t have to play in this game at all!

Can investing in SSD’s save them?

WD and Seagate are trying to counter the cannibalization of their core HDD businesses by diversifying into SSDs, but both companies could merely be shifting from one commoditized market into another.

DRAMeXchange claims that 2.5″ SSDs cost 11 times more than HDDs on a dollar per GB basis in 2012, but they now only cost about 6.5 times as much. The company expects that gap to narrow to 2.8 times in 2017 and potentially achieve price parity a few years later. If this happens before WD and Seagate diversify enough of their business away from HDDs, their core businesses could collapse.

And the better value (supposedly) is:

WD and Seagate are both in bad shape, but WD is clearly the better pick. Its margins are higher, its valuations are lower, its dividend is sustainable, and it’s better invested in the future through its acquisition of SanDisk. Seagate must make big changes to keep up — otherwise it could be left in the dust by WD, Samsung, and other major storage players within the next few years. (emphasis added)

In closing, I have very little use for the Motley Fool, but the article was timely so here it is!