94 Million HDDs Sold in 1Q18 – Trendfocus

In its SDAS: HDD Information Service, CQ1 ’18 Quarterly Update, published on May 1, 2018, analyst company Trendfocus, Inc. wrote:

Over 200EBs Shipped in CQ1 ’18,
Thanks to Record Nearline HDD Output
Total capacity shipped rose 3% while units were off 11% to 94 million HDDs;
$6.5 billion in industry revenue

Seagate‘s total unit shipments declined 7.5% from quarter-to-quarter to 36.70 million, but it regained the top supply position. Total exabytes shipped were off marginally to 87.29, as the company shipped a richer mix of products, posting an average capacity of 2.38TB. Both desktop and mobile volumes were lower in the quarter falling to 8.25 million and 13.02 million, respectively. CE shipments also fell to 6.29 million, down from 7.14 million in the prior quarter. Enterprise sales (performance and nearline) were higher in CQ1 to 9.14 million, up 0.46 million from CQ4. Performance enterprise HDD volumes totaled 2.74 million, nearly flat Q/Q while nearline HDD sales rose 7.9% to 6.40 million.

Toshiba’s sales declined 9.5% sequentially to 20.62 million, down from 23.13 million in CQ4. Desktop HDD and mobile HDD sales fell to 4.40 million and 8.83 million units, respectively for the quarter. CE HDD shipments fell seasonally to 4.70 million compared to 5.32 million in the prior quarter. Enterprise shipments totaled 2.69 million, up 5.1% Q/Q. Performance enterprise HDD sales lifted 3.8% from the prior quarter to 1.37 million, while nearline HDD shipments grew 6.5% to 1.32 million. Capacity shipped for the quarter slipped 1% from the prior quarter to 24.68EBs with average HDD capacity of 1.20TB.

WDC‘s shipments fell 14.0% sequentially to 36.39 million in CQ1 ’18. Enterprise shipments grew by 12.4% to 7.63 million HDDs, driven by strong 19.4% jump in nearline units to 6.08 million and 50.03EBs. The largest declines were in the desktop and CE space as HDD sales were off 24.3% and 31.5%, respectively. Desktop HDD unit shipments dropped to 8.45 million while mobile HDDs fell to 14.43 million. CE HDDs declined sharply to 5.88 million, down from 8.58 million in the prior quarter. Performance enterprise units equaled 1.55 million on 1.38EBs, slipping 8.8% sequentially. Despite the lower units, total capacity shipped grew to 92.10, up 6.7% Q/Q, and average capacity rose to 2.53TB due to higher-capacity nearline HDD volumes.

HDD Supplier Summary, CQ1 ’18, Units
(in million)