Disk storage grows 57.7% in petabytes shipped, but only 1.8% in revenues

Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues grew slightly in Q4 2004, posting just 1% growth YTY to $3.8 bln, according to IDC. The total disk storage systems market grew at a slightly higher YTY rate of 1.8% in Q4 2004, as internal storage revenues grew faster than external storage. Demand for disk storage systems capacity picked up considerably in Q4 2004, however, resulting in 57.7% YTY growth in external disk storage systems petabytes. For the full year 2004, the external disk storage systems market posted 4.7% revenue growth over 2003 to $14.2 bln.