Following a historic 41-45% decline in shipments 12 months over 12 months (YoY), the HDD market in 2Q 2022 appears to be on the verge of an apocalypse – or not less than standing on the doorways to purgatory. As reported by Storage Publication, weakening demand on the shopper aspect prompted this faltering cargo state of affairs for one of many longest-lived storage mediums. Density improve achievements aren’t sufficient to buoy this explicit market.
HDD shipments throughout the assorted market segments (shopper and enterprise) solely totaled 45 million items – a far cry from the 2010 peak of 651 million items (a median of 162 million items per quarter).
| Vendor | HDDs shipped (million items) | Q/Q change (%) | YoY change (%) | Market Share |
| Seagate | 19.8 – 20.6 | -10,4% / -13.8 | -26.9% / -29.7% | 44.3% – 44.7% |
| Toshiba | 8 – 8.6 | -14.3% / -20.2% | -38.5% / -42.8% | 18.5% – 18.1% |
| WDC | 16.5 – 17.3 | -12.4% / -16.5% | -31.4% / -34.6% | 37.2 % |
| Whole | 44.30 – 46.50 | -11.9% / -16.0% | -31.0% / -34.2% |
Enterprise HDDs remained comparatively flat, with a slight discount in demand in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months. However that is a market that is been constantly rising for years and which is bound to stay rising as Cloud and Excessive Efficiency Computing) environments require low-cost, low-power, high-density storage that may deal with the elevated digitization of our lives and scientific achievements.
The largest change was within the 2.5″ form-factor, which noticed a staggering 40% drop quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) to round 11 million items. The drop is defined by weak retail shipments and a softening mobility market that has largely shifted to flash-based storage options.
The second highest loss within the HDD market is within the Desktop/Shopper Electronics section, the place shipments fell by over 30% to 17 million items. Explicit demand weak point was seen within the surveillance, PC and retail sectors. This demand discount relates not solely to macroeconomics; there are extra necessary issues to spend one’s cash on when inflation is at 8.6% within the US alone. Nevertheless it additionally stems from the demand lower within the PC house, whose shipments ought to attain a yearly lower of 8.2% in comparison with 2021.
“SSDs killed the HDD star” is one other seemingly aspect, as worth discount for SSDs is actually rising their worth proposition for system integrators and shoppers. NAND producers dropped wafer costs for TLC and QLC NAND by 8~13% in Q2 2022, and an additional 5~10% discount is predicted for Q3. With lowered SSD pricing and high quality of life enhancements in comparison with HDDs with their winding, spinning platters and lesser sturdiness, the worth proposition for the patron aspect is jumbled even additional.
