14 DAY TRIAL // After a strong first half of 2010 and, especially, a promising first quarter, manufacturers of hard disk drives hoped that shipments would continue to rise during the second half of the year. This hope came as a result of the fact that this time is usually the peak season when it comes to hardware sales. Unfortunately, for the companies at least, certain conditions have arisen that hint at a rather weak remainder of the year. This caused HDD makers to reportedly reduce their shipment forecasts by 5% to 10%.
According to iSupply, about 164 million platter-based storage units shipped during the first three months of 2010. This led to estimates that suggested third and fourth quarter figures of 185 million and 192 million, respectively. Unfortunately, the global market, and the European segment in particular, appears to have entered a time of financial troubles. This drove HDD demands down by a great margin, causing suppliers of such solutions to expect less than what they hoped for.
The 5%-10% decrease comes after even the second quarter performance was revealed to have been less formidable. At first, the expectation revolved around 165 million. Now, manufacturers don't expect to finish June with more than 152-155 million sales. Fortunately, even despite this on-quarter drop, the April-June quarter should still show growth compared to the same period of 2009.
Ironically, this lowered demand enabled a certain other issue to be resolved, in a manner of speaking. Apparently, the shortage of 3.5 HDDs has eased up now that PC makers have reduced their orders. This can be seen in relation to another report, made in May, which related that notebook demand had also drastically declined in European countries. It is unknown for how long these conditions will last, but, for now, Q3 and Q4 shipments are unlikely to match those during Q1.