2336
, Text: Elias Kasmi
Deliveries of hard drives in the world market in seven years have halved. The main reason for this was the growing popularity of solid state drives – SSDs – due to greater reliability and gradually decreasing cost.
Winchesters are a thing of the past
According to the information of the TrendFocus analytical company, the sales of hard drives for the quarter in the fourth quarter of 2019 fell by half compared with the figures for 2012. According to TrendFocus, the demand for media of this type is most active.
According to experts of the company, in the IV quarter of 2019, 77.2 million hard drives were sold. Seven years ago, over the same period of time, this figure was at the level of 150 million.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, sales dipped by 12.3%. In the III quarter of 2019, the total number of hard drives sold was 83 million.
TrendFocus experts see only one reason for what is happening – hard drives are gradually being squeezed out of the market by more modern solid-state drives (SSDs). Their cost falls from quarter to quarter (for example, 1-terabyte models for 2018. have fallen in price 50%), and they provide greater reliability of data storage in comparison with consumer-grade hard drives.
How are manufacturers doing?
The rating of hard drives as of January 2020 was divided between three manufacturers – Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba, and sales in the fourth quarter of 2019 fell for each of them. Seagate is in first place in terms of supply – they amounted to 31.5 million devices, but compared to 2018, they fell by 14%. This led to a reduction in its market share for the year from 41.7% to 40.8%.
Hard drives sell worse and worse
–
Western Digital holds second place with 29.35 million hard drives sold. Sales for the year fell by 3%, market share is at 38%. Toshiba closes the top three – its supply volumes amounted to 16.35 million, and this is 20% less than in the fourth quarter of 2018. The company’s market share dropped 24% over the year to 21.2%.
In the IV quarter of 2019, all three companies in total sold 30 million 2.5-inch hard drives, both external and used in mobile PCs. Classic 3.5-inch desktop HDDs sold worse – shipments totaled 25 million.
Situation continues to worsen
If we compare the performance of the hard drive market for the IV quarter of 2019 with the I quarter of 2019, then Seagate sales did not sag, but did not increase. how reported CNews, in Q1 2019, its supply volume varied between 31.4–31.8 million hard drives, and the market share was 41%. Meanwhile, on an annualized basis, indicators fell by 14.4%, and compared to the fourth quarter of 2018 – by 14.5%.
Western Digital at the beginning of 2019 held the second line – 26.9–27.3 million hard drives and a market share of 35.1%. At that time, its sales fell by 26.1% year on year and 12.9% quarterly.
Toshiba in the first quarter of 2019 sold 18.3-18.7 million drives, gaining 23.9% of the market. The annual decline at that time was 11.3%, and the quarterly – 13.3%.
How manufacturers struggle with a collapse in sales
As the main way to combat the decline in sales, companies have chosen to increase the capacity of hard drives. For example, Western Digital in December 2019. found a way to increase the capacity of hard drives up to 50 TB – through the use of HAMR plate heating technology. Western Digital plans to reach such a volume by 2026. Seagate, recall mastered HAMR back in 2018
Western Digital is currently using MAMR or Microwave-Assisted Magnetic Recording technology. Differing in only one letter in the abbreviation, it works on a completely different principle – if in HAMR the emphasis is on heating the plate, then microwaves are used here. At the end of 2019, she released her 18-terabyte hard drive in a 3.5-inch version that uses this technology.
Seagate, in turn, during 2020. going to expand the distribution of 18-terabyte and start supplying 20-terabyte HDDs, and in 2024 plans to achieve a capacity increase of up to 30 TB. The company’s transition to the production of 50-terabyte drives should take place by 2026. The company does not forecast their cost, even preliminary, but it should be noted that such storage media will not be released with an aim at all for the consumer segment.
–
->
– .
