Seagate still king in Hard Drive Shipments!

Global shipments of hard disk drives (HDDs) rose 15.5% in 2006, as suppliers managed to capitalize on growth opportunities while shrugging off challenges including price wars, component shortages and competitive upheavals, according to research firm iSuppli.

The HDD industry in 2006 shipped 434.2 million hard drives, up 15.5% from 375.8 million in 2005. In the fourth quarter of 2006, 119.7 million HDDs were shipped, up 15.8% compared to the same period a year earlier and an 8.3% increase from the third quarter, said the research firm.

Along with strong sales to established markets in computing and consumer-electronics products, the HDD industry benefited from the rise of a new application: external hard drives. In 2006, 2.6 million external HDDs were shipped, up 37% from 2005. Demand for external HDDs is being driven by the desire of consumers to store and backup large-sized video and audio files downloaded from Internet services, noted iSuppli.

The top-two leading HDD suppliers also made gains in the fourth quarter of 2006. Seagate's share of 34.6% in the fourth quarter was up a notch from 34.3% in the third quarter. Western Digital Corporation (WDC) held its second-place position at 20.5%, also up slightly from 19.9% in the previous quarter. However, number-three Hitachi GST's share was 17.2%, down slightly from 17.5% in the third quarter.

HDD supplier ranking for 2005 and 2006(ranking by percentage of unit shipments)
Rank	Supplier	2005	2006
1	Seagate	28.7%	33.1%
2	WDC	17.7%	19.6%
3	Hitachi GST	15.5%	16.1%
4	Samsung	7.2%	10.0%
5	Toshiba	8.7%	9.0%
6	Fujitsu	6.4%	6.9%
7	Maxtor	14.1%	3.7%
8	Excelstor	1.0%	1.4%
9	Cornice	0.4%	0%
10	GS MagicStore	0.2%	0%
	Other	0%	0%

Source : digitimes.com