Hard drive shipments show a surge

SALES OF HARD DRIVES soared by 15.5 per cent last year, according to figures from market research firm iSuppli.

And Seagate maintained its lead both for the fourth quarter of 2006 and the year, overall.

For the whole year, iSuppli estimated 432 million HDDs shipped with the external hard drive market giving the market a boost. These devices are mostly used for storing big video clips and masses of audio.

There was a shortage of glass - no really - towards the end of the year. Demand for one inch HDD drives weakened as vendors favoured flash over rotation.

The figures below show iSuppli's ranking by percentage of unit shipments for 2006. µ

Vendor	2005	2006
1 Seagate	28.7%	33.1%
2 Western Digital	17.7%	19.6%
3 Hitachi GST	15.5%	16.1%
4 Samsung	7.2%	10.0%
5 Toshiba	8.7%	9%
6 Fujitsu	6.4%	6.9%
7 Maxtor	14.1%	3.7%
8 Excelstor	1%	1.4%
9 Cornice	0.4%	0%
10 GS Magicstore	0.2%	0%
Others	0%	0%