Seagate Technology LLC in the first Q bolstered its lead in the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) market, amid stronger-than-expected demand throughout the industry, according to iSuppli Corp. Global HDD shipments amounted to 101.7 mln units in Q1 2006, up 16.5% from 87.3 mln units during Q1 2005. iSuppli had predicted growth of 15.4%. Shipments declined by 1.7% compared to 103.4 mln units in Q4 2005. However, HDD sales typically decrease sequentially in Q1 following the peak holiday period during Q4. The stronger-than-expected HDD sales in Q1 2006 were driven by demand from the mobile-PC and consumer-electronics markets.
| Global hard drive shipments in Q1 2006 | ||||||
| Rank | Q1 2006 | Q4 2005 | ||||
| Q4 2005 | Q1 2006 | Company | Shipments, 000 | Share, % | Shipments, 000 | Share, % |
| 1 | 1 | Seagate | 29,450 | 29.0% | 28,820 | 27.9% |
| 2 | 2 | WDC | 18,800 | 18.5% | 18,100 | 17.5% |
| 3 | 3 | Hitachi GST | 14,654 | 14.4% | 16,780 | 16.2% |
| 4 | 4 | Maxtor | 12,075 | 11.9% | 13,599 | 13.2% |
| 5 | 5 | Toshiba | 9,460 | 9.3% | 10,330 | 10.0% |
| 6 | 6 | Samsung | 8,728 | 8.6% | 7,750 | 7.5% |
| 7 | 7 | Fujitsu | 6,890 | 6.8% | 6,352 | 6.1% |
| 8 | 8 | Excelstor | 1,260 | 1.2% | 1,050 | 1.0% |
| 9 | 9 | Cornice | 360 | 0.4% | 400 | 0.4% |
| 10 | 10 | GS MagicStore | 0% | 200 | 0.2% | |
| Source: iSuppli | ||||||