EL SEGUNDO, CA – Worldwide hard disk drive unit shipments grew 18.9% last year, according to iSuppli Corp.
 
Annual HDD shipments crossed the half-billion-unit threshold for the first time, and revenue rose 4.6% year-over-year to $32.8 billion, says the research firm.
 
Beyond strong demand growth from notebook PCs and consumer electronics products, HDD makers benefited from a second-half cease-fire in the price war that had dictated market conditions over the past three years.
 
Although the price war continued to rage in the first half of the year, the second half brought a rebound and an appreciation of the value of HDDs. Pricing was supported by the arrival of high-capacity 1Tbyte HDDs, a key milestone in the face of technology challenges from NAND flash memory, says iSuppli.
 
Seagate Technology maintained its lead in the global HDD market, with its share of shipments rising to 34%, from 33.1% in 2006. The company shipped 175 million HDDs in 2007, up 22% year-over-year.
 
Second-ranked Western Digital shipped 113 million HDDs and increased its share to 22%, from 19.6%. The company benefited from its foray into the enterprise secondary storage market with its premium-priced RAID edition drives, says iSuppli.
 
No. 3 Hitachi Global Storage Technologies increased its share to 17.3%, from 16.1% in the prior year. Hitachi reversed its operating loss of $93 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 to achieve an operating profit of $95 million in the same period of 2007.
 
Despite the competitive threat posed by NAND-type flash memory in products ranging from MP3 players to notebook computers, the industry's strong performance in 2007 indicates HDD isn't ready to quit any time soon.
 
Still, the threat of NAND is going to haunt the industry in the coming years. Only cost reductions and the continued advancement in HDD technology, driven by profit-funded research and development activities, will keep the industry afloat, says the firm.  

HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative has scheduled a workshop in Leuven, Belgium, to review work on its 2009 roadmap.
 
The all-day workshop will be held June 18 at IMEC. This workshop is one of three regional meetings; other workshops are scheduled in North America (May 14) and Asia (July 28).
 
A review of drafts of select roadmap chapters will give participants the opportunity to discuss key product sectors and technology and infrastructure areas, and to provide input to the roadmap.
 
Chapters to be covered include medical product sector; portable/consumer product sector; environmentally conscious electronics; solid-state illumination and photovoltaics; organic and printed electronics; board assembly; final assembly; interconnect substrates: organic and ceramic, and packaging.
 
The workshop fee of $300 is waived for iNEMI members and workshop speakers. 
 
The registration deadline for the European workshop is June 12. 
 
For more information, visit
http://www.inemi.org/cms/calendar/2009_RM_Euro08.html.
 

NEWARK, NY – IEC Electronics Corp. received a $4.7 million order from one of its military and defense customers.
 
The customer, which the EMS company declined to name, may increase the award by an additional $3 million or more based on end-market demand.
 
Deliveries will commence toward the end of IEC’s fourth quarter, ending Sept. 30, and will continue throughout the first half of calendar year 2009.

SANTA CLARA, CA – EMS provider Hunter Technology has opened an additional design center in San Diego.
 
Opening the center will aid the company’s plan to provide PCB design and engineering services nationally through its subsidiary CADParts & Consulting, Hunter says.
 
Hunter plans to add additional service centers around the U.S. during the next few months. 
 
Present locations include Northern and Southern California, New Jersey, Colorado, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.
 
Design services are available for CAD platforms of tools that include Altium, Cadence, Mentor and Zuken. Engineering services have been added, including original design, cost reduction engineering and mechanical design services.