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Hardware Seagate's CEO on Dell, Apple and Porn
Brandon Hill (Blog) - December 1, 2006 6:08 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 51 comment(s) - last by Slaimus.. on Dec 8 at 1:33 PM

William D. Watkins - Chief Executive Officer
Seagate's outspoken CEO cuts through the bull

We've heard from some outspoken CEO in the past, but Bill Watkins, CEO of Seagate Technology, might just take the cake. In a recent sit down with FORTUNE, the proud Texan gave his opinion on everything ranging from where he sees disc drive technology going to how his company is promoting porn.

Watkins held nothing back and has no problem talking about some of major players in the tech industry these days. On Dell, Watkins said "The 90s were all about the enterprise, and that's why Dell did so well. Now, it's all about the consumer, and that's why Dell is having problems. They don't understand the consumer. They want a competitor to the iPod and what do they do? They go with Creative."

Seemingly, Dell is making up for lost ground by trying to dedicate more focus to its consumer base whereas Apple has been on that page ever since its conception. "Apple figured out a long time ago that this business is about the consumer, and the world finally caught up to them. Most companies have a technology and go looking for a problem to solve. Steve Jobs looked at what was happening - people were loading music onto their computers and wanted to take it with them - and he built a product to solve that problem," said Watkins

When asked about the never ending Blu-ray vs HD DVD debate, Watkins simply stated "Let them fight it out. They can have it. As far as I'm concerned, it's really a battle of electronic storage versus hardware."

But probably Watkin's most humorous comment came when asked about what were the ambitions of Seagate as a company. But quite frankly, his company is simply in business to sell storage solutions to customers and it's not exactly rocket science. "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn."

Watkins did let one sizeable nugget of information out though about Seagate's future product plans. It will release a 1 terabyte hard drive in the summer of 2007 with a price tag of around $700.

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Hmmm
By creathir on 12/1/2006 10:09:40 PM , Rating: 5
To credit Steve Jobs the ENTIRE MP3 player industry... seems absurd to me. MANY players were out WELL before the iPod... (I had one... from RCA of all places! Good 'ol Lyra)

I understand the sudden introduction of a music store was a fantastic idea, but it really was a matter of necessity. Napster and file sharing was on the way out by way of court order, so a huge void was left. I can GURANTEE more songs were downloaded with Napster than iTunes... It is a certainty. Anything and everything was available on it... and everyone I knew used it. Most used it to make CDs, but when MP3 players came out, about half of my friends started getting them. (And thinking back on it... the Lyra was $230 for a player that included a 64MB flash card.... my how things have changed)

I would NEVER credit Apple with the success of the MP3 player. Not in a million years. They did not open up the world to music over the Internet. They did not introduce the world to the MP3 player. What they did, was introduce the world to over priced hardware, songs that were no longer free, all packaged neatly with aggravating advertisements.

Not what I would call... innovation.

- Creathir




RE: Hmmm
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 12/2/2006 12:23:45 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
I would NEVER credit Apple with the success of the MP3 player. Not in a million years. They did not open up the world to music over the Internet. They did not introduce the world to the MP3 player. What they did, was introduce the world to over priced hardware, songs that were no longer free, all packaged neatly with aggravating advertisements.

Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile, but he sure did revolutionize it.



RE: Hmmm
By creathir on 12/2/2006 2:28:27 AM , Rating: 4
Sure, but people never credited him with inventing it either.

The way Watkins is speaking, it is as if Jobs and Jobs alone created the DAP industry, which is hardly the case.

- Creathir


RE: Hmmm
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 12/2/2006 2:56:50 AM , Rating: 2
Maybe not in absolute terms, but most Americans had no clue what a DAP was until the iPod came around.


RE: Hmmm
By FITCamaro on 12/2/2006 8:53:13 AM , Rating: 3
I worked at Best Buy long before the iPod came out and I can assure you, everyone knew what an MP3 player was. They were selling off the shelves long before Apple's little DRM encrusted iPod joined the ranks.


RE: Hmmm
By Googer on 12/2/2006 12:21:53 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
William D. Watkins - Chief Executive Officer



Is it just me or is William D Watkins wearing a John Ritter disguise?

http://www.goingfaster.com/darkthoughts/john_ritte...




RE: Hmmm
By AzureKevin on 12/5/2006 1:33:46 AM , Rating: 2
I kind of noticed the resemblance, actually, but it's small.


RE: Hmmm
By solgae1784 on 12/2/2006 12:38:17 AM , Rating: 2
Since when was music ever been free? You pay for the CD/cassette/LP to listen to music. You sound like artist should be making their songs completely free......


RE: Hmmm
By creathir on 12/2/2006 2:31:19 AM , Rating: 2
Nope, I don't believe that at all. However, this was what most of the people interested in music were doing in the late 90s. Napster was THE thing... everyone downloaded... everyone participated.

Sorry if I was coming off like I was advocating the use of services such as Napster, but I was just pointing out that the fall of Napster is what created a void for iTunes to fill. Without that void, I highly doubt iTunes (or the iPod for that matter) would have made it. The idea of PAYING for downloaded music at that time was repugnant to say the least.

- Creathir


RE: Hmmm
By lobadobadingdong on 12/2/2006 9:30:03 AM , Rating: 3
I actually bought more cd's during the Napster days than any other time of my life. (I guess I bought around 1200-1500 cd's in a 2 year span...I never actually counted them) I would check out a few songs from an album and if I liked more than 1 song from the group I'd go buy thier cd (nothing sucks worse than shelling out $14 for a cd that only has 1 good song on it). When all the nonsense of suing the consumers started I stopped buying cd's entirely. I ended up selling nearly all of my cd's as the nonsese got worse as it sickened my stomach both as a consumer and as a buisness owner. Now I just tune in to a radio station and put up with commercials.

Before anyone jumps my case, everyone I knew did the same thing, it was taboo to just get music for free. I agreed that those sites should have been shutdown after learning more about the Copyright laws whether I agree with them or not that is the law. However the consumers shouldn't have been targeted the way they were.


RE: Hmmm
By protosv on 12/3/2006 11:00:41 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
I bought around 1200-1500 cd's in a 2 year span...I never actually counted them) I would check out a few songs from an album and if I liked more than 1 song from the group I'd go buy thier cd (nothing sucks worse than shelling out $14 for a cd that only has 1 good song on it).


Wait, lemme get this straight, you were somehow able to drop nearly $17,000 on music over 2 years? Wish I had your job.


RE: Hmmm
By rykerabel on 12/4/2006 4:15:04 PM , Rating: 2
Read his post, he doesn't have a "job"

quote:
both as a consumer and as a buisness owner.


owning or at least running a business is the only way to get rich or richer.


RE: Hmmm
By mindless1 on 12/2/2006 4:25:14 AM , Rating: 1
Since when? Always. Ever since the first artist sang in public, right up until today on the radio. You're not paying to hear music, you're paying for control over when and how you listen.

Artists should be paid of course, what you are willing to pay for the content, not what an industry collaboration has decided is the fixed price.


RE: Hmmm
By michael2k on 12/2/2006 9:55:37 AM , Rating: 4
I would make the analogy with the Nintendo Wii:
There have been similar devices before, but none so simple that the average (100 IQ and below) person could use. Apple made four design decisions that simplified MP3 players so much that anyone could figure them out:
1) Fast serial port synching... no more waiting for hours to load 3gb of music
2) Simplified UI... allows one handed use, allowed anyone to use
3) Small form factor+high storage... makes music more mobile, compared to the large Nomads or the low storage flash players of the time
4) Cached music index... allowed for faster navigation, longer battery life, and free localization

There were no other MP3 players at the time that combined all those features: You had the high storage Nomad, but it was bulky (as big as a Mac mini), slow (USB1), and hard to use (11 buttons). You had the flash MP3 players that had small storage capacity (64mb or 128mb) and hard to use (you had to resynch every day if you wanted new music).

It took years for Creative to adopt the smaller 1.8" and 1" HDD. Apple did not invent the MP3 player... but I think it isn't absurd to credit him with the industry, in the same way that Microsoft deserves credit for the PC industry.


RE: Hmmm
By Griswold on 12/2/2006 10:19:44 AM , Rating: 1
You hit the nail on the head.


RE: Hmmm
By bokep on 12/2/06, Rating: 0
RE: Hmmm
By Wong Fei Hung on 12/3/2006 5:33:53 PM , Rating: 3
"Steve Jobs looked at what was happening - people were loading music onto their computers and wanted to take it with them - and he built a product to solve that problem"

Rather than "Steve Jobs saw the success of the Rio and decided to capitalize on it"

Seems a clear case of a claim of invention to me.


ouch
By slash196 on 12/1/2006 6:54:28 PM , Rating: 2
That man is uncanny; I have two Seagate HDs in my comp and yes, they're both to store porn (and pirated games).




RE: ouch
By JWFokker on 12/1/2006 8:36:07 PM , Rating: 3
Of my 1.1TB of porn storage capacity, 600GB of it is provided by Seagate, the remaining 500GB is from WD. But I will make sure Seagate gets my porn storage business in the future.


RE: ouch
By osalcido on 12/2/2006 3:21:25 AM , Rating: 2
I'd love to access this incredible library of yours. Willing to share? :^)-


RE: ouch
By FITCamaro on 12/2/2006 8:58:23 AM , Rating: 2
Wow. If you need that much porn, you probably aren't getting any in the real world(your hand doesn't count). Leave the computer screen and venture out into what we like to call, outside. The women there you can actually touch. Sure, their bodies might not be as perfect or their breasts as perky, but its a hell of a lot more fun.