I think it's a "perfect storm" of all of the above. All around the same time, there were the floods, consolidation in the market reducing competition, and the l

I think it's a "perfect storm" of all of the above. All around the same time, there were the floods, consolidation in the market reducing competition, and the large consumer shift to SSDs (and probably consumers "topping out" and deciding 4 TB drives are enough). IMO the last effect is the largest. In any technology, the continuous cost decreases we're used to rely critically on a constant stream of consumer dollars, especially as the low-hanging fruit is plucked and you have to work harder to get further improvements. HDD companies know the writing is on the wall and that huge investments in R&D are going to take longer to pay back as the consumer market dries up.