The third quarter won’t be among the most lucrative for magnetic storage devices

Sep 15, 2012 13:01 GMT  ·  By

As if to confirm what market analysts have been saying again and again (that HDDs are weakening as a market), Western Digital has released its forecast for the third quarter of the year (2012).

Long story short, hard disk drive sales will be lower than the original expectations for the July-September period.

The forecast was of 157 million, give or take, but now Western Digital believes 140 million is a closer estimate.

That implies that the early forecast was about 11% off.

As a consequence of the reduced shipment forecast, revenue projections have decreased as well. Where once they were of $4.2-$4.3 billion (€3.20-€3.27 billion), now they are of $3.9-$4.0 billion (€2.97-€3.04 billion).

If things drag on for much longer, HDD makers may decide to start cutting prices, like DRAM makers have been doing.