Seagate 5-year Warranty

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Effective immediately, Seagate is extending the warranty on all its hard drives to 5 years - notebook, desktop and server.

Is this confidence, or marketing desperation (Seagate has been faltering of late)?

In the auto industry, Chrysler Corporation did this during the 1990s - extended the warranty in the US, and then almost died a second time because warranty costs were eating it alive, when quality hadn't matched the warranty.  Hyundai and Kia have done the same but not suffered financially as a result.

It'll be interesting to see what happens, and how the other drive companies react.

http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,1121,2285,00.html