14 DAY TRIAL // The world really has come a long way. Three decades ago, computers were a luxury, but now they are part of our lives and they aren't even the only ones that use hard disks anymore, hence Seagate's milestone.
Seagate has proudly announced that it has reached the two billion hard disk drive shipment mark, after 33 years.
The first billion was reached in 2008, after the first 29 years since the company's founding. Thus, the second billion was sold in only 5 years.
The consolidation of the HDD market played a great part here. Until a decade or so ago, there were a whole bunch of hard drive makers.
Now, though, there are three: Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba. All the others either went bankrupt or were bought by them.
"This is truly an impressive accomplishment and I am proud to lead this company as we celebrate this success," said Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate. "This achievement is a testament to the commitment of our employees whose relentless dedication and personal pride continue to be the fabric of this company."
Seagate has set up a timeline on its website, where it lists its most relevant accomplishments, starting with the funding in 1979 (it was called Shugart Technology then) and ending with the present day's celebration.
Other notable years are 1980 (Seagate ships the first HDD, ST506), 1982 (the first overseas office is opened in Singapore), 1986 (Seagate monthly manufacturing capacity reached 200,000 drives a month), 1988 (5.1 million HDD mark is reached), 1996 (100 million), 2005 (HDDs are adopted by Xbox 360), 2008 (1 billion mark), 2010 (GoFlex external drives debut), 2011 (first wireless portable drives debut) and 2012 (the Backup Plus launches).
"By 2015 households which today routinely consume 1TB of data a month are expected to generate 20 times the amount of data than they currently save," said Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, a technology research and consulting company.