424 Million HDDs Shipped in 2016 – Trendfocus

In its SDAS: HDD Information Service, CQ4 ’16 Quarterly Update and Long Term Forecast, published on February 9, 2017, analyst company Trendfocus, Inc. wrote:

2016 HDD Industry Summary: Solid CQ3 and CQ4 Sales Temper Y/Y Decline Unit Shipments Fall 9.5% Y/Y to 424.07 Million,
Total Capacity Shipped Climbs to 606EB Due to Richer Product Mix

Mobile HDDs
167.08 million units shipped in 2016, down 12% Y/Y due to declining PC sales and increased SSD penetration, especially in the commercial sector. Western Digital led all suppliers accounting for 43% of the total. Seagate’s share slipped to 30%, while Toshiba gained share to 27% for the year. Average capacity of mobile HDDs rose to 928GB, lifting capacity shipped to 155.13EB.

Desktop HDDs
100.87 million units shipped, down 18.5% Y/Y due to eroding desktop PC sales. Western Digital surpassed Seagate for the top position with 40.2% market share compared to 39.8%. Toshiba accounted for the remaining balance of 20.0%. 2016’s desktop HDD average capacity increased 12% to 1.28 TB, while exabytes decreased to 129.02, down 9%.

Consumer HDDs
89.65 million HDDs shipped to CE applications in 2016, up 6% Y/Y due to a combination of strong game console HDD and branded surveillance sales. 3.5″ CE HDD shipments totaled 40.27 million up 7% Y/Y. 2.5″ CE HDD segment, which is the largest market, totaled 49.38 million, up 5% from prior year. Western Digital, including HGST, led the CE market again with 42% share, followed by Seagate at 35%, and Toshiba at 23%. CE HDD average capacity grew modestly to 1.20TB, up 20% Y/Y. As a result, exabytes shipped rose 26% to 107.26.

Enterprise HDDs
66.47 million units were shipped in 2016, down 4% from 2015. Traditional enterprise shipments decreased in 2016 to 25.47, down from 31.78 million in 2015, while nearline HDD sales grew 9% to 41.00 million. Seagate remains the leader in this space growing its share to 50% market share. Western Digital came in second with 38% share and Toshiba accounted for the balance of 12%. Average capacities for enterprise HDDs, including traditional and nearline models
rose 44% Y/Y to 3.22TB, with capacity shipped rising 38% to 214.12EB.

WW HDD shipments in 2016 (units in million)