Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : Any info about Iomega (IOM)? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Coley who wrote (44375)	1/22/1998 1:59:00 PM
From: cruncher	Respond to of 58324

More demand stimulus. From the January 19, 1998 Issue of Electronic News In-Stat In-Sights New Market Opens For Hard Drives By Michelle Abraham In-Stat Industry Analyst Computer Market Services Last September, WebTV introduced the WebTV Plus Receiver, the first Internet TV set-top box to include a hard disk drive. The WebTV set-top boxes manufactured by Sony, Phillips, and Mitsubishi, use a 1.08 GB Seagate Medalist hard disk drive. These hard disk drives are differentiated from those used in PCs only in quieter operation. Users of the WebTV Plus Receiver do not hear the movement of the hard disk drive in the background while surfing the Internet or watching TV. The advent of a hard disk drive in the WebTV Plus Receiver opens up a new market for hard disk drives, which traditionally have been used only in the PC arena. The hard disk drive can be used to store information downloaded from the Internet locally. It also allows the appearance of a faster connection since some Internet information can be stored in the local cache. Adding a hard disk drive to the set-top box in the living room will become common, as more set-top boxes are built with Internet connections. When Seagate recognized this market opportunity, it invested $15 million in WebTV in early 1997. In 1998, In-Stat expects to see the introduction of more Internet TV set-top box models with hard disk drives from WebTV, Network Computer, Inc./RCA and others. Currently, Coollogic has prototypes of Internet TV set-top boxes with optional Zip drives for storage but most other Internet TV set-top boxes do not have storage options. In the future, hard disk drives may be included in any one of a number of set-top boxes or connected separately to the boxes via an IEEE 1394 connection. Currently, there are several categories of set-top boxes such as cable TV set-top boxes, DBS set-top boxes, video game consoles, DVD players, and Internet appliances. During the forecast period from 1998 to 2002, set-top boxes that merge two or more of these functions are likely to appear on the market. In-Stat believes it most likely that the hard disk drive will be included in whichever set-top box contains the Internet connection. Wherever they end up, In-Stat predicts that all the stand-alone Internet appliances shipped in 2000 and beyond will have a hard disk drive. The market for hard disk drives in consumer electronics devices will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 184 percent during the forecast period. The chart shows In-Stat's forecast for unit shipments of hard disk drives in consumer electronics type devices. Though this market is growing much more quickly than the computer hard disk drive market, the annual unit shipment volume in the traditional hard disk drive market will be over 250 million units in 2002. Compared to that, unit shipments in the consumer electronics market will be a drop in the bucket. However, beyond 2002, as consumer set-top box markets continue to grow, so will the market for hard disk drives in consumer electronics devices. One day, with the integration of consumer electronics devices, each TV set shipment could correlate to a shipment of a hard disk drive.