Seagate reported record shipments for the first quarter of this year (fiscal Q3). The company was able to sell 24.9 million drives, up from 24.3 million units in the previous quarter and 18.1 million drives in the first quarter of 2004.

Earnings climbed to $229 million on revenues of 1.97 billion, up from $159 million and $1.39 billion from last year. According to chief executive officer Bill Watkins, the harddrive industry is growing in all segments with most significant increases in the consumer electronics space. The segment currently contributes about 13 percent to Seagate's revenue, about three times more than one year ago.

Of the 24.9 million shipped, 4.2 million drives were sold into the areas of handhelds (1.9 million), gaming (0.9 million) and digital video recorders (1.4 million). 1.8 million 2.5" drives were built for the notebook market, which is up 85 percent from last year. The largest segment by far remains the desktop drive market, which reached 15.5 million (up 6 percent) drives in the most recent quarter. Enterprise sales were 3.4 million units (up 38 percent). (THG)