EL SEGUNDO, CA — Seagate Technology in the first quarter
bolstered its lead in the hard disk drive market amid
stronger-than-expected demand throughout the industry, according to
iSuppli Corp.
“Global HDD shipments amounted to 101.7 million units in the first
quarter of 2006, up 16.5% from 87.3 million units during the same
period of 2005. iSuppli had predicted growth of 15.4 percent,” said
Krishna Chander, senior storage analyst for iSuppli.
“Shipments declined by 1.7% compared to 103.4 million units in the
fourth quarter of 2005. However, HDD sales typically decrease
sequentially in the first quarter following the peak holiday period
during the fourth quarter. The stronger-than-expected HDD sales in the
first quarter were driven by demand from the mobile-PC and
consumer-electronics markets."