Facing a slowly eroding market according to competitors, DEC has reduced prices on several of its disk drives by up to 51%. Prices on the top-end SA482, which stores up to 2.5Gb fully configured with four 622Mb drives, are cut by 24% to 26%, with the two drive unit off 26% at $34,000, the four-drive off 25% at $66,000. The RA82, which stores up to 1.9Gb on three drives, is off by a similar amount, with a single drive unit cut 28% to $17,000, a full three-drive unit falling 22% to $51,000. The 150Mb RD54 is reduced 38% to $4,500 and the 42Mb RD32 is down 33% at $1,615. The biggest cut is on the RX33 floppy drive, which falls 51% to $388. According to Electronic News, DEC agrees that it will be bringing out new disk drives this summer, but insisted that the cuts were in response to those elsewhere, and not an anticipation of the new drives – a 1Gb drive is expected in July.
