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Hard drive market revenue expected to drop by double digits this year

Analysts are expecting the hard drive market to face a "myriad" of challenges this year.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Manufacturers and supply chain partners in the global hard drive market are being warned to brace themselves as analysts are forecasting a double-digit drop in revenue this year.

IHS iSuppli issued a report on Monday, predicting that revenue for the hard disk drive market will drop by approximately 12 percent in 2013 to $32.7 billion -- compared to $37.1 billion for 2012.

Fang Zhang, an analyst covering storage systems at IHS, explained in the report that analysts are expecting the HDD market to face a "myriad" of challenges this year.

But, according to Zhang, the primary motivating factor is the consumer shift to mobile (or post-PC) devices.

Shipments for desktop PCs will slip this year, while notebook sales are under pressure as consumers continue to favor smartphones and tablets. The declining price of SSDs also will allow them to take away some share from conventional HDDs.

The silver lining, if there is one, is that revenue is predicted to flatten out in 2014.

Zhang also added that hard drives are still considered to be the "dominant form of storage" for computing devices, including Ultrabooks, which are also expected to be in higher demand soon.

As for the HDD suppliers, IHS projects that the battle at the top will come down between Western Digital and Seagate, with the former achieving a significant leap in the enterprise segment.

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