Hard Drive Shipments Back on Record Track After Thai Floods
The hard drive industry has shed the impact of the catastrophic Thailand flood last year and has fully recovered, IHS reports.
The market research firm believes that total 2012 HDD shipments will be 524.0 million units, up from 502.5 million in 2011. The industry is, according to IHS, poised for strong growth and will sell 575.1 million drives in 2016. This number only includes shipments into the PC and market, but not drives shipped into the automotive market, for external drives, or consumer electronics such as DVRs.
"HDD shipments for computers will overcome a sluggish third quarter to reach record levels in 2012," said Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at IHS.
"The yearly rise in HDD shipments is the result of greater demand from the consumer and enterprise PC segments, both of which continue to clamor for disk space in order to hold storage-intensive media like music, videos and other forms of social media content," he said. "As downloadable media content becomes more readily accessible and affordable, so will the quest for storage space continue in order to satisfy unremitting demand."
Potential growth driver for hard drive sales will be Windows 8, as well as compact notebook from factors such as Ultrabooks.
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Wolfgang Gruener is an experienced professional in digital strategy and content, specializing in web strategy, content architecture, user experience, and applying AI in content operations within the insurtech industry. His previous roles include Director, Digital Strategy and Content Experience at American Eagle, Managing Editor at TG Daily, and contributing to publications like Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware.
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Prices are still inflated though. Before the flooding a 500GB drive could be had for ~$50 and a 1TB drive for ~$70. Prices now are still 25-50% higher than that.Reply
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echondo It's already too late. Unless I can get a 1TB Western Digital Hard drive for $50, I'll continue to use cloud storage and SSDs.Reply -
drwho1 just days before the FIASCO started 2TB drives were $79 on Newegg.Reply
If it weren't for this FIASCO we would have 4TB for $79 by now. -
master_chen Hmmm...I thought prices got back to normal, like, 4 months ago...Gruener, you're slowpoking again, huh?Reply -
mouse24 master_chenHmmm...I thought prices got back to normal, like, 4 months ago...Gruener, you're slowpoking again, huh?Reply
Prices haven't been "normal" for quite a while now. I assume you mean production levels? -
jimmysmitty anort3Prices are still inflated though. Before the flooding a 500GB drive could be had for ~$50 and a 1TB drive for ~$70. Prices now are still 25-50% higher than that.Reply
While prices are still inflated, they are dropping back to normal. For a while my store couldn't get any 320GB HDDs. We have them again finally. And 2TBs are $99 which isn't too bad.
They will decline steadily again and we will see better prices in the coming months. -
cumi2k4 good, now how about returning the price and warranty period back before the flood, mmkay?Reply