Hard Drive Shipments Strong

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 7/19/2006

Hard drive shipments declined sequentially in Q1, but climbed year-over-year, according to a report from iSuppli today.

The firm credited stronger-than-expected demand throughout the industry as the quarter’s driver.

“Global HDD shipments amounted to 101.7 million units in the first quarter of 2006, up 16.5 percent from 87.3 million units during the same period of 2005. iSuppli had predicted growth of 15.4 percent,” said Krishna Chander, senior storage analyst for iSuppli, in a statement.

“Shipments declined by 1.7 percent compared to 103.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005. However, HDD sales typically decrease sequentially in the first quarter following the peak holiday period during the fourth quarter. The stronger-than-expected HDD sales in the first quarter were driven by demand from the mobile-PC and consumer-electronics markets,” Chander added.

Number-one-ranked Seagate augmented its market-share lead by more than 1 percentage point, rising to 29 percent, up from 27.9 percent in Q4 2005, and shipping nearly 29.5 million drives in Q1. According to iSuppli, the company maintained its stronghold in the enterprise computing market with a greater than 50 percent market share. Seagate competes in nearly all HDD segments, except for the 1.8-inch market, an area it intends to enter by the end of the year.

Number-two HDD supplier Western Digital Corp. also gained ground by increasing its market share to 18.5 percent in the quarter, adding 1 percentage point of share from 17.5 percent in Q4. Western Digital shipped 18.8 million drives, most of them for desktop PCs, iSuppli reported.

Also of note was Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, which maintained its number-three ranking, having shipped 14.7 million drives. However, the company lost some ground, with its market share declining to 14.4 percent in Q1, down from 16.2 percent in the fourth quarter, the firm’s data showed.

iSuppli believes that Q2 experienced its normal seasonal low. However, with shipments having exceeded expectations in Q1, the firm said that prospects for the HDD industry in 2006 appear to be positive.

SOURCE: ISUPPLI CORP. JULY 2006