X-bit labs

Consumer Electronics – Major Growth Area for Hard Drives, Says Research.

Category: Storage

by Anton Shilov

[ 10/28/2005 | 09:53 PM ]

Personal computer market growth rate is currently exceeding expectations, the market of advanced consumer electronics (CE) is also expanding greatly. According to market research firm In-Stat, manufacturers of hard disk drives (HDDs) are expected to enjoy terrific increase of demand for hard drives aimed at CE markets. In fact, HDDs are to be the most preferable type of storage, even more popular than Flash memory.

As consumers continue to amass large amounts of digital content, they require enhanced storage capacity on their consumer electronic products.  Hard drive manufacturers are increasing storage capacities on smaller form factor hard disk drives (HDDs); as a result, these companies are poised to benefit from the expanding Consumer Electronics (CE) market, reports In-Stat.

“Alternative storage solutions, such as improved Flash, will continue to compete against small form factor HDDs. Nevertheless, HDD manufacturers are primed for impressive growth in the CE segment, especially as shipments of 1-inch HDDs escalate due to growth in the portable CE space,” says Stephanie Guza, In-Stat analyst.

In 2004, shipments of hard disk drives into the Consumer Electronics segment reached 40 million units, and this market will reach almost 240 million units in 2009, the high-tech market research firm says. Over the next few years, significant growth may come from portable devices such as PDAs, digital camcorders, and mobile phones.

According to In-Stat, the 1-inch-and-smaller HDD market will win out over the forecast period and represent 50% of all HDDs shipped to the CE segment by 2009. Total worldwide shipments of hard drives will increase dramatically over the next five years, growing from approximately 304 million in 2004 to 500 million in 2009.

As a result of demand for storing increased amounts of data on smaller, portable devices, HDD manufacturers have strengthened efforts to introduce products utilizing perpendicular recording.