<<I am hoping the disk drive makers will get there, but they are not there yet.>>
Here is a press release from IDC about tape storage.
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Worldwide Tape Storage Market Posts Healthy
Revenue Gain in 1998 But Units Drop,
According to IDC
Framingham, MA, January 19, 1999 — According to a recently published Tape Storage Year-In-Review
bulletin from International Data Corporation (IDC), it is estimated that the worldwide tape drive market grew
to $3.3 billion in OEM value for a 6% annual gain, despite a 5% decline to 4.7 million unit shipments at the
close of 1998. "The decline in unit growth was mainly due to the transition away from desktop tape storage
solutions to those aimed at servers," says Robert Amatruda, Senior Analyst for IDC's Storage Mechanisms
group.
As a result of increased shipments in the DLT category and a larger proportion of high-cost drives in the
half-inch cartridge market, overall ASVs worldwide increased by 13% to $701 in 1998. However, IDC
believes that worldwide ASVs will grow slowly, with more heated price competition in the midrange market,
which includes DC6000, 4mm, 8mm and DLT categories. IDC forecasts ASVs worldwide will increase a
scant 1% to $706 in 1999.
Top 5 Tape Drive Revenues and Shipments by Technology
DC2000 segment remained the unit volume leader, accounting for 41% of all tape drives shipped and
8% of the total "if sold OEM" revenue. The worldwide DC2000, or Travan, market is estimated to
total 1.9 million units, which represents a 19% decline over last year, and its total "if sold OEM"
market value is expected to decline to $265 million in 1998. Tape drives in the DC2000 market aimed
at the desktop remain under pressure from high capacity removable magnetic products, like the Zip
drive from Iomega and SuperDisk. However, IDC believes that the Travan NS effort to repackage
the technology as a file-and-print product for the fast-growing PC server space will not fully offset the
overall market decline.
Worldwide shipments of DC6000 dropped by 7% in 1998 to 304,000 and "if sold OEM" market
value declined by 4% to $127 million. The DC6000 market is transitioning away from
desktop-oriented storage solutions. Currently, Tandberg Data is the sole manufacturer in this segment
but Overland Data will commence production in 1999.
The worldwide 4mm market totaled $1.03 billion "if sold OEM" value, with 1.8 million drive units in
1998. IDC expects growth in the 4mm drive market to moderate in 1999 with the slow adoption of
DDS-4. In terms of price and performance, DDS-4 will be close to drive offerings in the 8mm
segment — specifically Sony's Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT) drive.
"If sold OEM" revenues for the worldwide 8mm market grew modestly by 7% to reach $306 million
in 1998 and shipments increased by 8% to total 230,000 units. Growth in this segment has moderated
in the past two years due to the strong growth in DLT.
Quantum's DLT has experienced strong growth in 1998 and has emerged as the de facto standard
tape technology in the midrange tape arena. DLT's "if sold OEM" market value jumped to 30% in
1998, totaling $983 million. IDC believes that the OEM agreement between Quantum and Tandberg
Data will have a positive impact on the further expansion of DLT tape technology.
Top 5 Worldwide Tape Drive Unit Leaders
Hewlett-Packard gained 2 points of unit share over 1997 to reach 33% of the total worldwide units,
resulting in 1.5 million units shipped.
Seagate lost a point of unit share over last year to end up at 23% and 1.1 million units shipped.
Iomega dropped 2 points of unit share over last year to arrive at 13% and 603,000 units shipped.
Quantum gained slightly, increasing its annual unit share 2 points to 9% and shipping 403,000 units in
1998.
Sony made a small 1 point improvement over 1997 in 1998 with 8% unit share and 397,000 units
shipped.
The bulletin also gives 1999 forecasts for worldwide tape drive revenue and shipments by technology, as well
as a look at new tape formats for 1999. For more information or to purchase this bulletin (#B18103), Tape
Storage, 1998 Year in Review and 1999 Forecast, call Cheryl Toffel at 1-800-343-4952, ext. 4389.
IDC's Web site (http://www.idc.com) contains additional company information, recent news releases, and
offers full-text searching of the latest available research.
idc.com |
