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Worldwide Hard Drive Sales Jump on iPod, Laptop Boom

Thursday, April 13th, 2006 at 3:50 PM - by Staff

Worldwide hard drive sales reached 376 million units in 2005, up 23% from 2004 on the strength of the gains made by laptops as well as such portable devices as iPods. DigiTimes reported that the 71 million unit gain was the largest year-to-year jump in industry history.

Supply chain issues left to hard drive media shortages, however, the article said, citing an iSuppli report. In addition, Apple's switch to flash memory for the iPod nano hurt demand for one-inch drives, but the introduction of the video iPod helped the sale of 1.8-inch drives. iSuppli described concern over flash memory as "a bogeyman" that led to speculation hard drive usage would significantly decline, but that development has yet to occur.

iSuppli's 2006 outlook is optimistic, with sales expected to rise 14.4% from last year, although the firm cautions that flash memory could continue to exert competitive pressure. In addition, unforeseen problems could rise from the switch to perpendicular recording technology, which is expected to enable the industry to keep increasing drive capacities.

Thanks to Macworld UK for the link.

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