WW External Disk Storage Market Declined 7% in 3Q09

Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage revenue totaled more than $3.9 billion in the third quarter of 2009, a 7.3 percent decline from the same period in 2008, according to Gartner, Inc.

“The year-over-year decline of 7.3 percent indicates that the economic downturn’s impact on the disk array storage market is loosening its grip. The prior two quarters in 2009 showed declines in the double digits. This is good news for storage vendors, because it’s the first sign of a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Donna Taylor, principal research analyst for Gartner, Inc.’s global Storage Quarterly Statistics program.

EMC maintained its No. 1 position with 26.7 percent revenue market share. EMC’s market share is more than double that of its closest competitor, IBM, which placed second with 13.2 percent. HP came in third with 10.8 percent. Hitachi, Dell and NetApp ranked fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, by the narrowest of margins. Hitachi achieved an 8.8 percent market share, while Dell and NetApp each achieved 8.6 percent. Dell and NetApp’s revenue was separated by only $2 million. Sun Microsystems placed seventh with 3.6 percent market share.

 
Worldwide ECB Disk Storage Vendor Revenue
 
Estimates for 3Q09 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Notes:

• 1 –  EMC revenue excludes OEM revenue from Dell and Fujitsu Siemens.
• 2 –  Hitachi/Hitachi Data Systems revenue excludes OEM revenue from HP and Sun Microsystems.
• 3 –  Others revenue in 3Q09 includes new vendor coverage not available in 3Q08, as well as enhanced estimates of the ‘white box’ market

Source: Gartner (December 2009)

* Beginning in 4Q08, Gartner added new vendor coverage in the Others category, as well as enhanced ‘white box’ estimates. Therefore, revenue estimates for the Others category will tend to distort market shares among all categories until FY09, when an apples-to-apples comparison will be possible. As a result, Gartner suggests that readers focus instead on the individual ‘named’ vendors’ year-over-year revenue percentage change.

Gartner ECB disk storage reports reflect hardware-only revenue, as well as hardware revenue associated with financial leases and managed services. Optional storage software revenue and storage area network infrastructure components are excluded.