14 DAY TRIAL // Unlike certain other companies, most notably Acer, which are losing more money than they are making, Western Digital is still turning a profit, even though HDDs, its core business, have been suffering in terms of demand.
Part of it is because WD has been heavily dabbling in solid-state drives, as well as hybrid designs between HDDs and SSDs.
The company has also maintained a healthy relationship with server and data center users and service providers.
So the corporation managed to end the second quarter of its 2013 fiscal year (2012 calendar year) in the black.
The quarter ended on December 27 and left Western Digital with a three-month revenue of $4 billion / €2.95 billion.
The net income was of $430 million / €317 million, and $523 million / €386 million on a non-GAAP basis, or $2.19 / €1.62 per share.
In the second quarter of FY 2013, the year-ago quarter as it were, WD finished with a revenue of $3.8 billion / €2.8 billion, and a net income, or profit, of $335 million / €247.25 million, or $1.36 / €1 per share ($513 million / €378 million non-GAAP).
In layman terms, Western Digital did better this past quarter than during the same period of the previous year.
"We executed well in the December quarter as we continue participating in the ongoing growth of data in all of our served markets," said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer.
"The industry TAM was slightly higher than anticipated driven by seasonal demand as we saw strength in gaming and branded products."
Western Digital hopes to stay the leader on the HDD market, and essentially ahead of Seagate in all things, HDD or otherwise. That recent report about Seagate having the least reliable HDDs might help, since it was Hitachi that won it, and Hitachi is now WD's sub-division HGST.