Western Digital Corp, Irvine, California maker of hard disk drives, says it expects to report earnings per share for the September quarter in the range of $0.63 to $0.66, up more than 80 percent year-on-year, but well below analysts’ expectations of $0.81 per share. WDC blames greater than anticipated competitive pricing pressures which eroded the company’s gross margin despite improved unit shipments of 6.3 million hard drives. In the year ago period, WDC earned $0.35 per share on revenue of $883m and unit shipments of 4.9 million. The company will report its first quarter results on October 9.
