Western Digital likely to unseat Seagate in 2010, says The Information Network
Press release; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 13 May 2010]
digitimes.com
Western Digital (WD) came close to taking the lead in the global hard disk drive (HDD) market in 2009, but a surge in desktop sales kept Seagate in the lead for the year, according to The Information Network.
However, WD moved past Seagate in the first quarter of 2010, shipping 51.1 million units compared to 50.3 million for Seagate, said the research firm. WD may take the lead in the 2010 HDD market.
"The mobile HDD market, which is WD's strength, will outperform the desktop market, which is Seagate's strength, in 2010," noted Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network. "That's one of the factors in our forecast that WD will move ahead of Seagate in 2010."
Seagate shipped a total of 175.2 million HDDs in 2009, compared to 171 million units shipped in 2008, The Information Network said. But WD managed to narrow its gap with Seagate, with its shipments only 10 millions behind the market leader.
WD shipped a total of 165.2 million HDDs in 2009, up 13% from 146 million units a year ago, according to The Information Network.
For 2009, a total of 558 million HDDs were shipped, said The Information Network. Seagate led with a 31.4% market share, just ahead of WD. Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) was third with a 16.4% share, followed by Toshiba/Fujitsu with a 12.6% share.
The mobile sector was a tight race, with 211 million HDDs shipped in 2009, according to The Information Network. WD led with a 28% share, but Toshiba/Fujitsu, HGST and Seagate followed with a 2% share difference among the three companies.
The 3.5-inch form factor, common in PCs, was the largest sector with 306 million HDDs shipped in 2009, The Information Network said. Seagate led with a 43% share followed by WD with 32%.
"All the above is based on unit shipments. If we look at the revenue portion, revenues for the latest quarter for both WD and Seagate was the same at US$2.6 billion," said Castellano. "That means that the average WD HDD sold for US$50.88 while Seagate's HDD prices averaged US$51.69. Not too significant."
Source: The Information Network, compiled by Digitimes, May 2010 |
