ISuppli: Seagate Stays No. 1 In Hard Disk Drive Market In 4Q
03/22 03:49 PM
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Seagate Technology LLC (STX) remained the world's largest manufacturer of hard disk drives in the fourth quarter of 2009, despite a strong challenge by perennial second-ranked Western Digital Corp. (WDC:$40.64,00$2.50,006.55%) .
Overall, shipping grew 8% from the preceding quarter to 49.9 million hard disk drives units, with Seagate (STX:$19.7075,$0.7775,4.11%) controlling 31% of the market, according to iSuppli Corp. The research firm put Western's market share at 30%, although sequential growth was stronger for Western.
Fang Zhang, an iSuppli analyst, said Seagate's (STX:$19.7075,$0.7775,4.11%) hold on the top spot surprised many observers who thought Western Digital (WDC:$40.64,00$2.50,006.55%) would bypass its main rival during the quarter.
ISuppli expects Seagate (STX:$19.7075,$0.7775,4.11%) to uphold its peak ranking in the current quarter, and noted both companies are expected to increase capital expenditures this year. Given the seasonal nature of the market, overall hard disk drives shipments are expected to decline slightly in the first quarter, iSuppli said.
Other companies that placed in the top five in the fourth quarter include Hitachi Ltd. (HIT:$35.95,00$0.02,000.06%) , Toshiba Corp. (TOSBF:$4.9000,$0.0400,0.82%) (TOSYY, 6104.TO)/Fujitsu Ltd. (FJTSF:$6.1498,$0.0000,0.00%) (FJTSY, 6702.TO) and Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF:$655.8000,$0.0000,0.00%) (SSNHY, 005930.SE).
-By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2480; john.kell@dowjones.com |
