Hard disk shipments reach record level

Hard disk producers have set a new shipment record for 2005. According to market research firm iSuppli, the industry shipped 103.4 million units in the fourth quarter of last year, a growth of 8.3 percent from 95.4 million in the third quarter, and up 20.9 percent from 85.5 million in fourth quarter of 2004.

"Hard drive shipments in the last quarter and in the second half of 2005 were boosted by strong demand from the consumer electronics market," said Krishna Chander, senior analyst at iSuppli. "Products including MP3 players, Personal Media Players (PMPs) and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are helping the growth of the hard drive market. At the same time, sales of notebook computers have led to important sales increases in the hard drive sector. It is also important that Apple computer decided to give up the hard drive in its mainstream audio player, the iPod Mini and replace it with Flash memory in his successor the iPod Nano. However, iSuppli indicated, the video-enabled iPod accelerated sales of 1.8" hard drives.

On the mobile drive market, Fujitsu maintained the position of leading provider of 100GB, 120GB and 160GB Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drives, achieving impressive shipments of its high-capacity SATA products. Fujitsu also increased shipments of its leading Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) hard disk drives

Maxtor was the only important producer to report net losses. However, iSuppli said that the company reduced its deficit. It's expected that Seagate will complete the acquisition of Maxtor in the second half of this year.

"Worldwide hard disk drive unit shipments have sustained a constant growth over the last few years," said John Rydning, research manager for hard disk drives, IDC. "Since Fujitsu's decision in 2001 to focus on mobile hard disk drive markets, it has consistently improved its annual unit shipments as well as its market position."