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Is the jury still out on the OWC blade SSDs for MBA?

jamesryanbell

jamesryanbell

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 17, 2009
2,171
93
I remember a while ago that some people were getting beach balls, etc way too frequently. However, that was just after they came out.

Have enough people used these with success to say that they're a safe bet? :)

Really eyeing that 240GB version for my 11".
 
if only they didnt cost an arm and a leg I'd be more than willing to put one inside mine.
 
I agree that if they weren't so expensive, I would pick one up too for the extra storage capacity. The extra speed is nice, but the SSD that ships with the Air isn't exactly slow to begin with. OWC could potentially expand their market if they offered something similar in speed to the factory Air SSD, but higher capacity for a reduced cost.

Can't speak to their reliability as the high cost keeps me away.
 
200GB OWC ssd for $200 *drool*

(thats how much i paid for my regular OCZ SSD)
 
Aboo said:
Am I missing something? the 200GB OWC drive is 549!
Click to expand...

Xgm541 is saying his standard physical size 2.5" SSD that he purchased was $200 for 200GB of storage and was manufactured by the company OCZ. Xgm541 desires a MacBook Air SSD from OWC with comparable storage and price.

While I don't think it's entirely fair to directly compare a standard size 2.5" SSD to a custom MacBook Air compatible SSD blade, OWC's prices could and likely would be lower if they weren't the only company selling MacBook Air compatible SSD storage. When you're the only game in town, you can charge quite a premium as your customers have no other option.

Of course other storage options such as USB, Firewire, SD and network/online/cloud exist, but carry major compromises (speed, portability, power usage, network availability) compared internal SSD storage.
 
pil0tflame said:
Xgm541 is saying his standard physical size 2.5" SSD that he purchased was $200 for 200GB of storage and was manufactured by the company OCZ. Xgm541 desires a MacBook Air SSD from OWC with comparable storage and price.

While I don't think it's entirely fair to directly compare a standard size 2.5" SSD to a custom MacBook Air compatible SSD blade, OWC's prices could and likely would be lower if they weren't the only company selling MacBook Air compatible SSD storage. When you're the only game in town, you can charge quite a premium as your customers have no other option.

.
Click to expand...

If this is actually what they're doing, it's stupid, since an OWC ssd is a 'want', not a 'need'. So all they do by keeping the price that high is to prevent sales. Perhaps if they dropped prices by a third they triple their sales, and thus make a lot more money.
 
robeddie said:
If this is actually what they're doing, it's stupid, since an OWC ssd is a 'want', not a 'need'. So all they do by keeping the price that high is to prevent sales. Perhaps if they dropped prices by a third they triple their sales, and thus make a lot more money.
Click to expand...

While I understand and agree with your point to a degree, I believe OWC has set their MacBook Air SSD prices very deliberately based on two primary factors that have to be considered together:

1. Lowering the price decreases their profit margin, but can increase their sales (as you're suggesting). In halving their profit, they need to double their sales to make the same money (more or less). There's a price point where you will not see enough of an increase in sales to make up for your decrease in profits. A company ideally wants to set their profit margin at the optimal point between profit and sales, but must also take into account #2:

2. Product supply availability plays a major role in setting profit margins. OWC can likely only purchase/produce a set number of these blade SSDs per month. If that number is say 1000/month and at the current price they also sell 1000/month the profit margin is set optimality. Similarly, if they're getting more orders than they can purchase/produce product for, then a profit margin increase will help reduce sales to a manageable level while also increasing profits. Of course, the inverse of that is also true: too few sales can be boosted by a profit margin decrease, but the relationship in #1 above must be observed.

Demand for OWC's MacBook Air SSD product could be decreased if a competitor offered a comparable product at a lower/same cost. This could cause OWC's sales to decrease. If sales decreased significantly below OWC's supply rate (#2 above), they may be inclined to lower their profit margin to see an increase in sales to the extent that #1 and #2 above would allow.

All in all, competition in business is typically positive for the consumer, but negative for business' profits. Businesses like OWC love to corner a market and gain a monopoly (which isn't illegal, btw) because they can capture 100% of demand as opposed to battling with other companies for market share by lowering profit margins.
 
robeddie said:
Perhaps if they dropped prices by a third they triple their sales, and thus make a lot more money.
Click to expand...

Since you have zero idea what they have to pay for the SSDs and what their other costs are, you have zero idea if it's even possible to 'drop prices by a third'.

And before you ask, no, you can't reduce a price below your costs and make it up in volume.

Economics 101. Heck, Economics 001.
 
We are working on a near term and then even better longer term solution so that customers can make effective use of their original Apple SSDs as a fast, bus-powered external drive. I will say that first... We have a ton of projects going on and I wish I could snap my fingers for every project to complete in a blink. Anyway...

About pricing - flash is not cheap and the pricing all would wish for are well below current costs today. That said, we have seen some drops in cost and those drops have been translating into the pricing on all of our SSDs - including the MacBook Air 2010 models. I'd welcome competition to our product here, would only serve to raise interest.

It's definitely a bargain by comparison to upgrade from 128 to 256Gb at the Apple store for their standard SSD offerings... same with going 64GB to 128GB in the 11" vs. jumping to our 180GB. Apple already has a large premium for their SSD built into the cost (pardon me, 'Flash Storage' :). On the iMac 2011 Apple charges $600 to add a 256GB standard SSD... That is a more fair comparison to the $540 we current charge for our MacBook Air 240GB - which is a more expensive drive product due to the SSD design and flash needed for that tight space.

Our main advantage comes with the capacities... 240GB to 480GB which offer up to about twice the max you can get from Apple today in the 13" Air model and four times the max offered for the 11" model.

Our drives are fast and that does offer some benefits depending on the applications in use... not just synthetically... faster boot times, clone/backups, etc... But it's the capacity benefit that is of the most value from customers who are upgrading Macbook Airs in droves with the Aura models.

In closing.... I want to see the price on these come down as much as everyone... Price is a barrier and we expect to see that barrier reduced every month with the current trends. The Japan disaster actually caused a couple month disruption in that trend, but things are back on track again.

TC25 said:
Since you have zero idea what they have to pay for the SSDs and what their other costs are, you have zero idea if it's even possible to 'drop prices by a third'.

And before you ask, no, you can't reduce a price below your costs and make it up in volume.

Economics 101. Heck, Economics 001.
Click to expand...
 
I bought the 240GB module for my MBA11". I installed it but when I try to restore/reinstall OS (using the USB stick that came with my MBA), it couldn't find the hard drive at all. I tried to reinstall several time and I know I have it positioned properly. It is a very tight fit. Again, I know I have it installed correctly but it is not showing up as a drive. I have put my original one back for now and it is working fine.
 
DocGo said:
I bought the 240GB module for my MBA11". I installed it but when I try to restore/reinstall OS (using the USB stick that came with my MBA), it couldn't find the hard drive at all. I tried to reinstall several time and I know I have it positioned properly. It is a very tight fit. Again, I know I have it installed correctly but it is not showing up as a drive. I have put my original one back for now and it is working fine.
Click to expand...

You may need to format the drive first. See their website.


http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=HDDppcintelformat/HDDppcintelformat.html

Let me know how it goes. If that doesn't work try their technical support. I'd also be interested in how responsive they are. If the new 11" MBA update doesn't have a 256gb option I'm probably going to upgrade myself.
 
pil0tflame said:
Xgm541 is saying his standard physical size 2.5" SSD that he purchased was $200 for 200GB of storage and was manufactured by the company OCZ. Xgm541 desires a MacBook Air SSD from OWC with comparable storage and price.

While I don't think it's entirely fair to directly compare a standard size 2.5" SSD to a custom MacBook Air compatible SSD blade, OWC's prices could and likely would be lower if they weren't the only company selling MacBook Air compatible SSD storage. When you're the only game in town, you can charge quite a premium as your customers have no other option.

Of course other storage options such as USB, Firewire, SD and network/online/cloud exist, but carry major compromises (speed, portability, power usage, network availability) compared internal SSD storage.
Click to expand...

need it, DO IT, it's the only game in town:eek:
 
robeddie said:
If this is actually what they're doing, it's stupid, since an OWC ssd is a 'want', not a 'need'. So all they do by keeping the price that high is to prevent sales. Perhaps if they dropped prices by a third they triple their sales, and thus make a lot more money.
Click to expand...

this is a "blade " form factor ,NOT an encased SSD in a HDD case, if is what it is you need, you buy, but you know what They are fast and they work!:eek:
 
Last edited:
pil0tflame said:
While I understand and agree with your point to a degree, I believe OWC has set their MacBook Air SSD prices very deliberately based on two primary factors that have to be considered together:

1. Lowering the price decreases their profit margin, but can increase their sales (as you're suggesting). In halving their profit, they need to double their sales to make the same money (more or less). There's a price point where you will not see enough of an increase in sales to make up for your decrease in profits. A company ideally wants to set their profit margin at the optimal point between profit and sales, but must also take into account #2:

2. Product supply availability plays a major role in setting profit margins. OWC can likely only purchase/produce a set number of these blade SSDs per month. If that number is say 1000/month and at the current price they also sell 1000/month the profit margin is set optimality. Similarly, if they're getting more orders than they can purchase/produce product for, then a profit margin increase will help reduce sales to a manageable level while also increasing profits. Of course, the inverse of that is also true: too few sales can be boosted by a profit margin decrease, but the relationship in #1 above must be observed.

Demand for OWC's MacBook Air SSD product could be decreased if a competitor offered a comparable product at a lower/same cost. This could cause OWC's sales to decrease. If sales decreased significantly below OWC's supply rate (#2 above), they may be inclined to lower their profit margin to see an increase in sales to the extent that #1 and #2 above would allow.

All in all, competition in business is typically positive for the consumer, but negative for business' profits. Businesses like OWC love to corner a market and gain a monopoly (which isn't illegal, btw) because they can capture 100% of demand as opposed to battling with other companies for market share by lowering profit margins.
Click to expand...

YOU GET IT!:eek:
 
Lastly, I am NOT associated with OWC other than being a customer, I have 7 OWC drives into 7 MBA's, all 360 SSD's and they just work, I, and my friends,I have a 64 GB in a 2008 BMB, and a 480 GB in a 2007 BMB, I have had ZERO problemo's with anything, Beachballs are banished, LOVE OWC
 
Last edited:
Cheffy Dave...

That's really good to hear about all of your positive experiences. I'm *really* on the fence about the 240GB model. I guess I was just worried about using non-Apple drives since this form factor hasn't been out a long time (I know that probably doesn't matter a lot, but I'm just telling you what's going through my head). I just didn't want to "buy issues". haha.

Thanks for all of your input on this! :)
 
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