Continued PC Weakness Cuts HDD Shipments to Six-Year Low in 2Q15 – Trendfocus

Analyst company Trendfocus, Inc. has published its preliminary 2Q15 HDD results on July 7, 2015, in its SDAS: HDD Information Service.

Continued PC Weakness Cuts HDD Shipments to Six Year Low

CE shipments held steady with increased gaming demand, enterprise HDDs softened slightly after several strong quarters; however, desktop and mobile HDD declines drove total TAM to levels not seen since The Great Recession

• 3.5″ Desktop HDDs: Total desktop HDD shipments (including 3.5″ external HDDs) fell an estimated 12% sequentially, due to the lackluster commercial demand following the largely completed Windows XP refresh of last year. Non-PC uses such as SMB NAS and surveillance declined in a more typical seasonal fashion, somewhat tempering the total desktop HDD shipment reductions.
• 2.5″ Mobile HDDs: Very weak consumer demand for notebook PCs along with reduced OEM notebook builds ahead of a July release of Windows 10 cut 2.5″ mobile HDD demand in the quarter. Combined with normally weak CQ2 demand for 2.5″ external HDDs, the total 2.5″ mobile HDD category plunged an estimated 15% from the prior quarter, dipping well below 50 million units.
• CE HDDs: 3.5″ and 2.5″ CE HDDs for xVRs (set-top boxes) declined from the prior quarter, reflecting modest seasonal trends on a relatively stagnant market segment; however, 2.5″ CE HDDs for gaming were up measurably ahead of console builds and shipments for holiday sales. The gaming HDD increases largely offset other CE weakness, leaving the total CE HDD segment down only slightly from the prior quarter.
• 3.5″/2.5″ Enterprise HDDs: Both performance enterprise and nearline (capacity) enterprise HDDs fell from a three quarter streak of solid demand. Shipments of nearline HDDs to hyperscale customers fell slightly for the second straight quarter, although units remain at levels above the last major downturn that ended a year ago. Performance enterprise HDDs dipped somewhat, driving a roughly 5% sequential reduction of total enterprise HDDs for CQ2 ’15.