On the face of it, the insurance scheme announced by Seagate on PCs bought with Seagate drives is a good initiative. It has evoked some enthusiasm and some apprehensions from the channel.
p____p While the scheme could spark a lot more interest for Seagate drives, three year warranties give the channel the real peace of mind, judging by the response to the story on ChannelTimes. While the initiative from Seagate is appreciable, there are doubts about possible hidden costs and also hassles while making the claims. Do not forget, that this is the era of cell phone wars over hidden costs, the customer is bound to be more and more wary.
p____p Of course, none of the fears may hold true and the insurance cover may work out to be one of the best moves made by Seagate in recent times, however if the company had chosen to announce a three year warranty, I am quite sure the response to it would have been far more positive.
p____p A three year warranty can keep the script simple and persuade a buyer to plump for the product. The life for the reseller, assembler becomes that much less complicated. In this context, it is refreshing to see quite a few players who have recently announced the three year warranty.
p____p Vintron, making a comeback after going through some bad times, has announced a three year warranty on its Elixir brand of motherboards. This can really help the company push its product in the market as an alternative. Some time back, Cyberstar, distributor of MSI motherboards had also announced a 3 year warranty.
p____p In motherboards, the standard is now a three-year warranty and any brand offering a lesser period is at a loss. The same could be said of other critical component categories. The earlier, the vendors realize the issue, the better it is for their brands. Otherwise, the battle between them and their competition is being fought on an unequal footing.