Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a worldwide leader in storage solutions, today announced it is the first hard disk drive manufacturer to ship two billion hard disk drives (HDD)-a staggering number fueled by the explosive demand for storage from mobile applications, cloud infrastructures, social media, business applications and a wide variety of consumer markets. A testament to the pivotal role played by storage in today's digital world, it took Seagate 29 years to reach one billion units shipped and just four years to reach the second billion milestone.

"This is truly an impressive accomplishment and I am proud to lead this company as we celebrate this success," said Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate. This achievement is a testament to the commitment of our employees whose relentless dedication and personal pride continue to be the fabric of this company."Digital content demand continues to stem from a wide range of sources, including social media and mobile devices, fueling the need for storage. Analysts estimate that over 4 billion hours of user-generated content is watched each month on YouTube alone. While user generated high-definition camcorder video, still pictures, and smartphone clip sharing storage needs are expected to quadruple from 2013 to 2015.

"The ever-growing number of mobile and content capture devices using cloud services is fueling the growth of digital content," according to John Rydning, IDC's research vice president, for hard drives and semiconductors. "Mobile devices and the cloud are coming together to drive ongoing demand for hard disk drives, with shipments reaching more than 585 million units in 2013, and hard disk drive Terabyte shipments worldwide growing at a 30 percent 2012-2016 compound annual growth rate¹."

"By 2015 households which today routinely consume 1TB of data a month are expected to generate 20 times the amount of data than they currently save," said Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, a technology research and consulting company. "Consumer's continued appetites for securely saving and organizing high-definition multimedia requires higher performance and the most trusted and dependable drives. Seagate's drives and technology roadmap provide the ideal solution for consumer's soaring need for storage in the home - and away; now, and in the future."

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