CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XIX - Watkins says Seagate "helps people buy crap... and watch porn"

Unexpected candidness is a recurring theme of our CE-Oh no! series of posts, but this latest example from Bill Watkins, the CEO of Seagate, truly takes the biscuit. At a recent corporate dinner in San Francisco, the Texan CEO produced a quotable line edgy enough to give any PR people in the immediate vicinity an instant heart attack. In his exact words: "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn." We're gonna have to give the guy a break for two reasons: a) alcohol was readily available, and b), all those naughty digital photos have gotta be stored somewhere, and Seagate is in the digital storage business. Besides, the rest of Watkin's quotes are relatively thought provoking: his views on media distribution ("It's the content that's important"), Dell's problems -- no, not those ones -- ("They don't understand the consumer"), and other areas of the technology industry appear to be fresh and honest. Maybe just a bit too honest this time around.

[Alcaron @ Dec 2nd 2006 1:42PM]

I don't see what the big deal is. I mean, he isn't that far off. And like its some huge shocker that porn is big...omg, no way, since when? I didn't know that!!!!

And he's from texas so...

I could see this being a bit more, eh hem, edgy, if it were in some kind of real press release or maybe even an interview. But it was at a corporate dinner. Big deal.

[Gil @ Dec 2nd 2006 1:48PM]

I'm in the market for a new HDD. Just for that bit of honesty I'm going to go buy a seagate.

[Matt @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:01PM]

He isn't far off, I certainly don't blame him for the comment. I bought a 500 gig drive just so I could store all the TV shows and movies I download. Hell, I've watched all of them already, I should throw them out, but I keep them for posterity.

[Ratchet the Lombax @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:33PM]

Me too I got an external 500gb hard drive that has tons of anime and tv shows on it. It is not full yet but when it does fill up I will probably get another one to replace it since it is easier for me to do that than to burn them to dvds. DVDs can get damaged or misplaced very easy.

[White_Pheonix @ Aug 26th 2007 6:41PM]

DVDs are more reliable than an old hard drive. After all, if you lose one, that's just 4 gigs gone (or 8, if you've got a burner that can handle dual layer DVDs), and that takes two days or less to retrieve, if you can download the content at more than 100 KB/s. On the other hand, if your 500GB HD kicks the bucket, you've got 500GB of lost content, which could take a very long time to retrieve, especially if you don't know everything that was on it (in which case you might never get everything back).

RAID seems to be the way to go. After all, the chance of both drives (assuming that they are different models, and not stored in an area that's too hot, or damp) dieing in the same week is very low, and if they die even a week apart, there's enough time to get another drive and mirror all the content over between the first drive and the second drive dieing.

[LJKelley @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:03PM]

Somebody had to much drink...

He made my morning :) Seagate goes to the top of my list!

[J234 @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:14PM]

I would say that comment makes me more likely to buy a seagate HD sometime. At least he's honest, right, everyone does it.

_>

[xVariable @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:20PM]

What's the problem? That he's wrong (he's not), or that he's saying out loud what everybody knows but won't admit? It's not that his company is facilitating porn, rather that's what customers are using his products for. Kind of like people often use kitchen knives to kill people with. People COULD change the world with his products, but they aren't...

[zetha @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:25PM]

i have two seagate drives and they are my dedicated porn drives so.....

[Nick @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:33PM]

i was going to vote "+" for all the comments i agreed with, but that would have required too many clicks...

can I just vote "-" for the post? (sorry conrad)

[tokataro @ Dec 2nd 2006 6:44PM]

I don't think Conrad meant to criticize him, so much as point out how amusing it is that the CEO said this and will be getting forty lashes with a wet noodle from his PR guys for it. The engadget dudes generally have a pretty good sense of humor.

[Ray Valdez @ Dec 2nd 2006 2:42PM]

Yeah, on second thought, what he said isn't so bad. I mean, come on, if a backpack maker said that all backpacks are used for is to "store crap," it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

He just keeps it real.

[... @ Dec 2nd 2006 3:08PM]

You know what seagate should to to move their HDD's is preload them with a bunch of warez. Like have a /pron /tv /music /software and then you go delete whatever you don't want. The p2p problems would go down rapidly, everyone would buy the disks... What is there to loose?

If only they could do something about their drives running hotter then my p4... The 7200.8 series ones overheat if you don't have a fan blowing on them. 7200.9 seems to be ok with minimal airflow but they are a little hot for comfort... I guess I will be replacing then every few years anyway...

[Darwinbrian @ Dec 2nd 2006 3:17PM]

This is America, we don't tell people the truth here. If you do the media picks it up and makes you look like an idiot. I for one am proud that someone in this country can say something true, GO KRAMER!! err ceo guy...

[unL33T @ Dec 2nd 2006 3:41PM]

He's not far from the truth. I have 1.6 TB consisting of 8 Seagate drives in one computer alone. Plus I think the hard drive in all other 4 computers in my house except my notebook all run Seagate. I can't resist the 5 year warrantee. Although that won't help my data since none of it is RAID.

[tiuk @ Dec 2nd 2006 3:56PM]

A CEO that tells the truth.. the world needs more of these. Makes me happy I only buy Seagate drives.

[Adam @ Dec 2nd 2006 4:16PM]

I hate the tell you this but porn and computer games have pushed personal computers more than anything.

we don't need insane graphics cards to work a spreadsheet.

and we don't need bigger HHDs and faster internet connections to read blogs.

They're just lucky that digital distribution of music, movies, and TV has come around so they can claim thats what it's for. when in fact Porn takes up a huge part of our computers life.

[npChaos @ Dec 2nd 2006 4:30PM]

Oddly enough he kinda looks like Billy Bob Thornton...

[Robert Alonso @ Dec 2nd 2006 4:50PM]

I am shocked! Wow, I only have 400 MB left on my seventh drive. I'll have to run out and get another Seagate. I can't wait for the 1TB versions.

[Max @ Dec 2nd 2006 5:01PM]

Heh, this dude is awesome. Porn, consumer-oriented future products, and telling the board members where to stick it...what's not to like? I'm glad he's not a diplomatic wiener of a ceo who likes to show pie charts at such dinners. Go seagate! I will by seagate from now on. They need to come out with a portable drive that it designed to be tougher...maybe an alternate recording system so that the disks are less vulnerable to be damaged by the recording head if dropped or imporoperly disconnected. I'd buy that in a second for a little peace of mind when moving big files on the go.

[mike @ Dec 2nd 2006 5:14PM]

He's right.I do that too.

[John Doe @ Dec 2nd 2006 5:33PM]

As if the guys isn't right or something. Anyone care to guess as to the percentage of hard drives that have porn on them outside of a business environment? Bet cash its somewhere in the high 60% range.

[El Froggo @ Dec 2nd 2006 7:37PM]

I don't get it... how are they helping people "buy crap"? Surely that's Amazon, eBay, etc. (Although at least eBay conversely help people sell crap too...)

[Kentaro yamada @ Dec 2nd 2006 8:49PM]

What do you mean, "not that far off"
He's spot on!

[ken @ Dec 3rd 2006 2:07AM]

nice. its true. Seagate is now my preferred HD supplier becauase of this honesty and insight.. :)

[Naris @ Dec 3rd 2006 2:24AM]

I'd say that the PR guys might well be thanking him. After all he probably just won over a large group of technologically oriented people who read blogs such as this (and who probably buy more HD and in larger capacities than most ordinary consumers) to buy Seagate drives to store their porn in.

[Ron Larson @ Dec 3rd 2006 5:31AM]

IF the biz is concerned about the safety of my porn collection, then I know that I can trust them with my important data. I appreciate their honesty.

But I hate to break it to him, but the vast majority of my external HDD space is eaten up with audio files and video podcasts controlled by iTunes.

[Z @ Dec 3rd 2006 7:29AM]

Ahhhh... crap and porn. How sweet. Bill's parents must be so proud!

Is that Seagate's new mission statement? "Seagate - The world's gateway to more crap and porn since 1982".

Or maybe it's Bill's personal mission statement. "Yeah, ya know, I started out tryin' to change the world and all, but finally just settled on helpin' dish out crap and porn."

And yeah... yeah, I'm sure it was the alcohol. 100%. It was the same case with Mel Gibson.

[GhostDoggy @ Dec 3rd 2006 8:39AM]

So, he speaks candidly and honestly. lol Gimme more p0rn!

[Chris @ Dec 3rd 2006 11:20AM]

Wow, the author took this one completely out of context. The "crap" is referring to the data that you put on Seagate drives.

[tekdroid @ Dec 3rd 2006 3:55PM]

might be accurate, but they are pretty general comments and ignore the fact that he IS changing the world; hard drives these days are used by more and more CE devices; Xbox, playstation, PVRs, portable audio, etc.

And they are still essential to a desktop/notebook computer for 99.999% of those who use computers to change the world :)

Hard drives are everywhere now. Not just in computers.

[sublicon @ Dec 4th 2006 12:16PM]

hate to say it, he's right...my 200GB Seagate drive is half filled with MIDI instruments and samples, and half filled with porn. the man knows...maybe from experience!

[Soulwanderer @ Dec 5th 2006 12:32AM]

Wow... some one that has the balls to say what everyone thinks. I'm always up for floating my business to a company that's run with a sense of humor. Goodbye Western Digital, hello Seagate. =)

[Bart H. @ Jan 3rd 2007 1:18PM]

CRAP AND PORN!! W00T!

[Anonymous Monk @ Apr 19th 2007 2:18PM]

Candidness? Hm, try "candor." Journalism at its finest.

[Morgan Boyle @ Nov 13th 2008 4:54PM]

how is it even possible that there are *13* Highest Rated comments. whats going on here? next thing you know my off topic post is gonna trump them all!

[digi @ Nov 14th 2008 5:05AM]

why fill up your hdd with porn? just use youporn.