Saturday, September 29th 2012
Hard Drive Shipments Rebound to Record Level in 2012
A year after the Thailand flooding disaster partially derailed production, the global hard disk drive (HDD) industry has fully recovered, with shipments to the computer market expected to hit a record level this year, driven by the enterprise market as well as the arrival of the Windows 8 operating system.
HDD shipments in 2012 for the overall computer market, including PCs, are forecast to reach 524.0 million units, up 4.3 percent from 502.5 million units last year, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS.
The 2012 number will be the highest shipment figure on record in the HDD books at year-end-but the achievement will not stand for long. In fact, HDD shipments are projected to climb continually, the stellar results of each year bested by the next in predictable but welcome fashion until at least 2016. By then, HDD shipments will hit 575.1 million units, as shown in the figure below.
The forecast includes HDD shipments only to the PC compute segment, which includes client HDDs for desktops and notebooks on the one hand, and enterprise HDDs for servers and storage systems on the other. The forecast does not include HDD shipments for other applications such as in automotive, external hard drives or DVR devices.
In contrast to the glowing performance of HDDs for the PC space, annual HDD consumer-related shipments will decline this year from 2011 levels.
"HDD shipments for computers will overcome a sluggish third quarter to reach record levels in 2012," said Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at IHS. "The yearly rise in HDD shipments is the result of greater demand from the consumer and enterprise PC segments, both of which continue to clamor for disk space in order to hold storage-intensive media like music, videos and other forms of social media content. As downloadable media content becomes more readily accessible and affordable, so will the quest for storage space continue in order to satisfy unremitting demand. Meanwhile, the HDD industry has completely resolved disruptions to its HDD manufacturing and component supply caused by the Thailand disaster that struck one year ago."
Windows 8 to the Rescue
Another major growth driver for the HDD industry will be the new Windows 8 operating system to be launched in October. The market also will be boosted by ultrabooks, including those using hybrid HDD/SDD storage solutions, which will see an increase in shipments in the fourth quarter, although volumes will be relatively low this year.
Both factors are believed to be the best hope by the beleaguered PC sector to take on smartphones and tablets such as the iPad from Apple Inc.-two devices that have gobbled up the once-flourishing market of mobile computers like notebooks and netbooks. Through the revival of the PC sector, the HDD space-especially the enterprise HDD market-also stands to reap benefits by supplying the storage media for computers.
Such encouraging developments overall will help deliver a growth year while compensating for a weak third quarter, blamed by HDD players on persistent economic problems around the globe and the erosion of the PC market by smartphones and tablets.
HDD shipments in 2012 for the overall computer market, including PCs, are forecast to reach 524.0 million units, up 4.3 percent from 502.5 million units last year, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS.
The 2012 number will be the highest shipment figure on record in the HDD books at year-end-but the achievement will not stand for long. In fact, HDD shipments are projected to climb continually, the stellar results of each year bested by the next in predictable but welcome fashion until at least 2016. By then, HDD shipments will hit 575.1 million units, as shown in the figure below.
In contrast to the glowing performance of HDDs for the PC space, annual HDD consumer-related shipments will decline this year from 2011 levels.
"HDD shipments for computers will overcome a sluggish third quarter to reach record levels in 2012," said Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at IHS. "The yearly rise in HDD shipments is the result of greater demand from the consumer and enterprise PC segments, both of which continue to clamor for disk space in order to hold storage-intensive media like music, videos and other forms of social media content. As downloadable media content becomes more readily accessible and affordable, so will the quest for storage space continue in order to satisfy unremitting demand. Meanwhile, the HDD industry has completely resolved disruptions to its HDD manufacturing and component supply caused by the Thailand disaster that struck one year ago."
Windows 8 to the Rescue
Another major growth driver for the HDD industry will be the new Windows 8 operating system to be launched in October. The market also will be boosted by ultrabooks, including those using hybrid HDD/SDD storage solutions, which will see an increase in shipments in the fourth quarter, although volumes will be relatively low this year.
Both factors are believed to be the best hope by the beleaguered PC sector to take on smartphones and tablets such as the iPad from Apple Inc.-two devices that have gobbled up the once-flourishing market of mobile computers like notebooks and netbooks. Through the revival of the PC sector, the HDD space-especially the enterprise HDD market-also stands to reap benefits by supplying the storage media for computers.
Such encouraging developments overall will help deliver a growth year while compensating for a weak third quarter, blamed by HDD players on persistent economic problems around the globe and the erosion of the PC market by smartphones and tablets.
49 Comments on Hard Drive Shipments Rebound to Record Level in 2012
A lot of people have been holding off on buying drive, but will have to eventually (or lose out on pr0n).
All in all, at least when a WD drive fails, WD will cover it and I know it's going to take me no time to request the RMA and send it out.
You want an opinion, I will give you one: It is like the Petrol. demand stay high so if they Up the price, it will stay. Just like when they move from 1.35$/L to 1.49$ and the barrel didn't changed...
The price is not even like what we had. Before the Flood, HDD Green 2Tb, I could find for 65$, had a Warranty of 3years... Now we can find green or Seagate 2Tb for like 100$, but they seems cheaper than before. SO they have a shipment record, yeah, and at high price, this is not logic... So basically, they were able to produce enought drive, and if you remember, it was on october? so 3 months after, we where in 2012. So this went kinda fast to be able to rebuild their production..
I had given up on WD drives in the past 5 years since 4 had died. Before that it was SeaGate. So, this Samsung is going strong now. It's beaten two WD drives that had died in a shorter time.
Then the flood hits, supply drops, and prices skyrocket. Hitachi and Samsung's hard drive divisions are still struggling, so the parent companies decide to sell them off, so they are bought by WD and Seagate.
So now drives are selling for what they should be selling at to make a profit. The prices are back down to where they were about 9 months before the flood. We got spoiled for about 6 months before the flood by extremely low prices on hard drives because of Hitachi and Samsung flooding the market with cheap drives, but there was no way that could continue for very long, flood in Thailand or not. Drives are still selling for $0.05/GB, that is extremely cheap prices, 2 years ago the prices were about double that.
There, how's that for a Seagate rant? Now let's hear someone shred WD for a while...
I need my experience Seagate have a bit more of bad drives, but their good drives last a long time. I also experienced drives weaker to shock by Seagate
For an external drive that I want to put in an external enclosure, I avoid Seagate, for the rest I usually don't mind Samsung Seagate or Western Digital
While pre flood drives were really cheap, those pride would be fine right now as tech prices always fall
And with this good news.. where are the 5tb drives they promised us in Feb?
There are a few places on the internet where during Oct 2011- Feb 2012 the drive Mfg's said the 5tb's would be out by March-ish 2012 sometime.
I completely agree with you, it is luck of the draw with hard drives, from anyone and from any product class. So if that data is important, it should always be in at least two places.