Bangkok--Mar 14--IDEMA
Industry expects to deliver more than 70 million units by the end of 2005
The “Digital Home” will drive huge demand for CE HDDs in 2005, with shipments to various consumer applications surpassing 70 million drives. It will be about 20% of the total HDD shipment in the market.
According to Mark Geenen, president of the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA), CE HDD demand is growing solidly because of the impact of the digital home concept, which will change lifestyles worldwide, especially in the US and Europe.
“You have to imagine that every single equipment in your home, car and or anywhere else will have its own storage. The ability to share, access, and change content from home to the car or train, while flying, or on vacation, will start to be real this year. There are technologies forthcoming that will continue to demand ever-cheaper, high-capacity HDDs. One metric used is the number of HDDs per home. Some companies claim that by 2010, a mere five years from now, the average home will have 10-20 HDDs”, Geenen added.
CE unit shipments in 2004 of 40 million HDDs were more than double of those in 2003, and represented approximately 13% of total HDD unit sales. The CE emphasis is real — finally — and substantive. HDDs used in digital video recorders comprised the largest growth segment, while in 2005 gaming is still a large opportunity. The most visible product that used an HDD last year was Apple’s iPod, and that product has created an entire market. Right now the digital home is not only a concept, but clearly benefiting many people lives.
PCs or a similar device will evolve to be the digital backbone of the house, with both central storage and local/client storage. Handheld devices like mobile phones, video recorders, audio players, PDAs, game devices are prime candidates to use HDDs. From gaming to video/content recording of today to the increasingly mobile user that needs networked and cross-platform content sharing and usage, HDDs provide the best mass storage option.
However, the core demand in PC market, which has always been the backbone of HDD growth, is slowing down. HDD sales to personal computers (both desktop and notebook) are growing 9% annually for the next five years. In addition, enterprise demand is still growing, but only as a minor unit contributor.
About IDEMA
IDEMA is the trade association for the $30 Billion disk drive industry, representing 340 member companies in the personal computing, enterprise, and consumer electronics storage with offices in Sunnyvale, Ca., Singapore, and Tokyo, Japan. Visit www.idema.org for more information.
Media Contact:
IDEMA
Mark Geenen, President
408-991-9430
[email protected] End.