14 DAY TRIAL // Back in 2009, worldwide revenues from HDD shipments used in PCs declined by 11.7%, with ODD (optical disk drive) revenues falling by 6.3%. Of course, this was owed to the unfavorable economic conditions that impacted upon the entire industry. Now that the economy is on a rebound, iSupply predicts that the computer storage market will once again begin to rise.
“The 2010 economic recovery will bring rising sales of PCs,” Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at iSuppli, said. “The notebook sector is expected to be particularly strong, with shipments outgrowing those of desktops. This will drive the robust increase in HDD shipments.”
In 2010, worldwide revenues from shipments of hard disks used in computers are expected to amount to US$27.7 billion. This would correspond to an increase of 18.4% from 2009's US$23.4 billion. ODD sales are also expected to rise, by 7.6%, to US$14.8 billion in 2010, as opposed to last year's US$13.7 billion. This growth, iSupply predicts, will be driven by a number of factors.
On the one hand, Windows 7 will propel PC sales and, thus, storage-solution sales. On the other hand, enterprises will migrate to 2.5-inch drives, in order to achieve cost reductions in data centers. The research firm also predicts a bright future for external drives, mostly used for the storage of games, music and videos.
“Other factors contributing to the rise in demand in 2010 include new server purchases and the migration to 2.5-inch HDDs in data centers to achieve cost reductions. Furthermore, the adoption of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 operating system by the enterprise business segment is helping to propel PC sales. Shipments also are continuing to rise for external drives used for the storage of gaming, music and movies,” the press release noted.
HDD revenues are expected to grow the most during the fourth quarter, whereas ODD shipments are not expected to “recover to its fourth quarter of 2009 revenue level of $4.1 billion during any single quarter of 2010.” Still, the ODD market should grow on-year, as demand increases for games, movies and high-quality sound systems.