Dell says hard drive shortage will be constrained into Q1

TAIPEI: Dell Inc said on Wednesday the hard drive shortage caused by flooding in Thailand will remain constrained into the first quarter of 2012.

Amid Midha, Dell's President of South Asia and Asia-Pacific Japan, said on a conference call that the company purchased a significant amount of hard drives last month, but he refused to disclose the inventory level.

"But we have an improving visibility in the situation day by day; it's a fluid situation," said Midha.

The world's No. 3 personal computer maker's quarterly revenue just missed Wall Street estimates, and the company warned that full-year revenue could be hurt by an industrywide shortage of hard drives.