Hard Drive Shipments Rebound to Record Level in 2012

[Cristian_25H]

A year after the Thailand flooding disaster partially derailed production, the global hard disk drive (HDD) industry has fully recovered, with shipments to the computer market expected to hit a record level this year, driven by the enterprise market as well as the arrival of the Windows 8 operating system.

HDD shipments in 2012 for the overall computer market, including PCs, are forecast to reach 524.0 million units, up 4.3 percent from 502.5 million units last year, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief from information and analytics provider IHS.



The 2012 number will be the highest shipment figure on record in the HDD books at year-end—but the achievement will not stand for long. In fact, HDD shipments are projected to climb continually, the stellar results of each year bested by the next in predictable but welcome fashion until at least 2016. By then, HDD shipments will hit 575.1 million units, as shown in the figure below.



The forecast includes HDD shipments only to the PC compute segment, which includes client HDDs for desktops and notebooks on the one hand, and enterprise HDDs for servers and storage systems on the other. The forecast does not include HDD shipments for other applications such as in automotive, external hard drives or DVR devices.

In contrast to the glowing performance of HDDs for the PC space, annual HDD consumer-related shipments will decline this year from 2011 levels.

"HDD shipments for computers will overcome a sluggish third quarter to reach record levels in 2012," said Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at IHS. "The yearly rise in HDD shipments is the result of greater demand from the consumer and enterprise PC segments, both of which continue to clamor for disk space in order to hold storage-intensive media like music, videos and other forms of social media content. As downloadable media content becomes more readily accessible and affordable, so will the quest for storage space continue in order to satisfy unremitting demand. Meanwhile, the HDD industry has completely resolved disruptions to its HDD manufacturing and component supply caused by the Thailand disaster that struck one year ago."

Windows 8 to the Rescue
Another major growth driver for the HDD industry will be the new Windows 8 operating system to be launched in October. The market also will be boosted by ultrabooks, including those using hybrid HDD/SDD storage solutions, which will see an increase in shipments in the fourth quarter, although volumes will be relatively low this year.

Both factors are believed to be the best hope by the beleaguered PC sector to take on smartphones and tablets such as the iPad from Apple Inc.—two devices that have gobbled up the once-flourishing market of mobile computers like notebooks and netbooks. Through the revival of the PC sector, the HDD space—especially the enterprise HDD market—also stands to reap benefits by supplying the storage media for computers.

Such encouraging developments overall will help deliver a growth year while compensating for a weak third quarter, blamed by HDD players on persistent economic problems around the globe and the erosion of the PC market by smartphones and tablets.

[n-ster]

The HDD market was never in any trouble, they just decided to get the most money possible for some time. I wouldn't be surprised if they did a cartel during the flood

[Jetster]

So as long as the demand stays high so does the price

[NeoXF]

*sigh*...

[Rowsol]

Okay, now let's see the 2tb drives for $100 again...

(at least that's what I believe they were?)

Hmm, just did a look. 2tb samsung for $130. Not bad...

[Jetster]

No This is what they were 1 year ago

Order #88870168 $79.99

Tracking #:1ZX7993303578813233
9/12/2011 1 x SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 ST2000DL004 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

[Kantastic]

Originally Posted by Jetster

So as long as the demand stays high so does the price

The problem is the demand never changed.

[n-ster]

3TB WD Reds/blacks should be 150, 3TB greens should be 120 IMO

2TB should be 100 or maybe even 90$, 1TB should be 60$

and SSDs like the agility should be 50 cents the GB at 240GB+ (currently can be found at this price sometimes on specials, but shouldn't be with MIRs)

wow 80$ for 2TB, I don't even remember that time lol

[Jetster]

Here is your 2Tb for $100
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Ca...

[NC37]

Translation: "The public caught onto us and SSD prices are plummeting too!! Quick, shower them with cheap drives till they forget how much we screwed them over!"

[Shinshin]

I live in Israel so conversion from NIS to USD or Euros wouldn't be right because of taxes etc.
The same 100$ Seagate a few posts above me translates to 560NIS now. Just for the sake of comparison....

The story goes like this:
Back then I was looking for a 2TB drive. Samsung F4 was 415NIS at that time. It went down to 345 - great I'm going to buy one. Few days later, I went to the store asked for one. Surprise! The price went lower to 315. I bought one.
A week later(!) the price went down to 265NIS! Crazy! About 45% drop in 2 weeks!
Guess what happened a after another week?! right! The price surged to 800 something!

I should have bought few drives....

[DaC]

That's why I'm struggling for so much time with free space.... I'm ain't buying a new HD until prices are "normal" again. I can do with my 2.5 TB total.... if needed I'll just delete some HD films or games that I don't watch/play.

I got used to the low margin and big quantity on the PC industry, I'm not paying $$$$$$$ for an HD or VGA that must have been out much cheaper. So I keep holding or buying good used stuff for cheap, like mine 6870.... if more people did that prices would be a lot more reasonable.

[HeaveNAkirA]

Price of the HDD is 50% above from around year ago, i remember buying 1TB for around $60 and 2TB was around $80 inc VAT. Now they just rob us as they pleased and proudly announced there record selling saying "You'll buy no matter the price!"

[Hood]

Originally Posted by Jetster

Here is your 2Tb for $100
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Ca...

Too bad Seawaste is junk that will lose your data if it ever works at all - seriously, read the user reviews in NewEgg and tell me if you'd trust your data to one of these disposable drives. You get what you pay for, sometimes not even that. I have never had a WD drive fail prematurely. I even still have a few WD IDE drives from 10 years ago that still work. People say the WD green drives are failure-prone, but I have 2 of the 2TB models that are still going strong after 2 years. I paid just $79.99 for each of them. The WD black drives are more expensive, but run faster and rarely fail, plus they have a 5 year warranty instead of 2 years. The best deal I've seen is the WD Mybook 3TB external drive for $150, but these use the green drives and seem to have a high failure rate.

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by Hood

Too bad Seawaste is junk that will lose your data if it ever works at all - seriously, read the user reviews in NewEgg and tell me if you'd trust your data to one of these disposable drives. You get what you pay for, sometimes not even that. I have never had a WD drive fail prematurely. I even still have a few WD IDE drives from 10 years ago that still work. People say the WD green drives are failure-prone, but I have 2 of the 2TB models that are still going strong after 2 years. I paid just $79.99 for each of them. The WD black drives are more expensive, but run faster and rarely fail, plus they have a 5 year warranty instead of 2 years. The best deal I've seen is the WD Mybook 3TB external drive for $150, but these use the green drives and seem to have a high failure rate.

And I have 20+ year old 5.25" 520KB IBM drives that still work. Do you have a fucking point or just bad personal experience with some seagates?

Seagate has the highest reported failure rate along with the highest market share. here. If you want the most reliable drives by Hitatchi. WD is in second place only to seagate.

[newtekie1]

Originally Posted by Hood

Too bad Seawaste is junk that will lose your data if it ever works at all - seriously, read the user reviews in NewEgg and tell me if you'd trust your data to one of these disposable drives. You get what you pay for, sometimes not even that. I have never had a WD drive fail prematurely. I even still have a few WD IDE drives from 10 years ago that still work. People say the WD green drives are failure-prone, but I have 2 of the 2TB models that are still going strong after 2 years. I paid just $79.99 for each of them. The WD black drives are more expensive, but run faster and rarely fail, plus they have a 5 year warranty instead of 2 years. The best deal I've seen is the WD Mybook 3TB external drive for $150, but these use the green drives and seem to have a high failure rate.

WD is no better than seagate on average, I currently run 10 seagate drives just in my home, in the past 4 years only 1 has failed. I also run plenty of WD drives, and had a few failures there a well, in fact I just had two WDs die on my this week. I've also had a two RE drives die, which are supposed to be WDs "long life" drives, the first one was DOA and the second died after just 5 months of use.

I find it totally ironic that you start off by bashing seagate for failure rates, then end with a statement talking about WD high failure rates. WFT?

Originally Posted by cdawall

If you want the most reliable drives by Hitatchi.

Hitatchi and WD are the same thing now, WD bought Hitatchi back in March.

[claylomax]

I have hard drives from Samsung, Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital; all of them are still working with no problems; the oldest one is four years old.

[EpicShweetness]

Still have a Conner drive 213MB, worked until I unplugged it from a computer in 2009. It was a restoration files disk. Computer died of old age, r.i.p.

[DaC]

It's kind a thing of luck most of the time... with few exceptions of bad batch....
But I have a 20gb samsung ide hard drive, that still rocks if I put it in a machine, so many old files on it.... lol....

I have a 4gb WD drive that ended up with 50mb (of good sectors) in 3 months.....
I had a 15gb wd that also went bad in less than a year.... after that I couldn't stand WD anymore.... only samsung or seagate..... of course after so long I had some seagate drive to break on me... actually just 1 500gb..... but the warranty was great and I got it replaced locally in Brazil, in a matter of 2 weeks..... no complains here...
I might try some WD hd again, nothing against it too... I just pray to not end up with some bad batch....

[erocker]

Originally Posted by Rowsol

Hmm, just did a look. 2tb samsung for $130. Not bad...

Yeah, prices are coming back down. Now, SSD's need to compete with HDD's at the 500gb+ level.

[TheGuruStud]

Just say Crapgate. Sammys don't exist.

[ChristTheGreat]

Originally Posted by cdawall

And I have 20+ year old 5.25" 520KB IBM drives that still work. Do you have a fucking point or just bad personal experience with some seagates?

Seagate has the highest reported failure rate along with the highest market share. here. If you want the most reliable drives by Hitatchi. WD is in second place only to seagate.

Please, at least take something new, not from august 2010...

WD got the lead back: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-...ves,17227.html

WD 45%, Seagate 42%, Toshiba 13%

I can tell you guys, Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Samsung whatever, they have all sort of problem sometimes.. Seagate 2TB had alot of bad feedback, b ut some people that doesn'T have problem, will sometimes won't post a review of it.. Only the crap warranty of seagate makes me affraid, but when they get all the 2y, that should be "ok".

[symmetrical]

Unfortunately consumers will always need a hard drive. And even big name companies like Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc. will need hard drives for their pre-built systems too. Although SSD's are dropping in price, it still cant beat the sheer amount of space current HDDs have. What other obvious statements am I going to type.

[symmetrical]

Originally Posted by ChristTheGreat

Please, at least take something new, not from august 2010...

WD got the lead back: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-...ves,17227.html

WD 45%, Seagate 42%, Toshiba 13%

I can tell you guys, Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Samsung whatever, they have all sort of problem sometimes.. Seagate 2TB had alot of bad feedback, b ut some people that doesn'T have problem, will sometimes won't post a review of it.. Only the crap warranty of seagate makes me affraid, but when they get all the 2y, that should be "ok".

^This. I have owned various brands of HDD's and personally I have never had a failed drive. I had a WD, Seagate , Hitachi, Toshiba and Samsung. Though I am talking about reliability and not performance.

I think when people buy a particular HDD, it fails on them. And they associate it with their personal experience.

But I guess you can look up statistics on failure rate and draw a conclusion from that. I don't seem to be hearing too much good stuff on OCZ SSD's reliability.

Eh

[Sasqui]

I've heard it's usually cheaper per GB to buy an external drive, and tear out the drive. Voids the warrantee, but they make exceptions if you claim to have taken it out to recover data if the drive fails... but then that probable depends on the brand.

I've had all brands of drives fail on me, but I usually stick with WD.