History (1997): Tape Market at Record Levels

Magnetic tape storage will show continued growth in 1997, both in terms of tape drive shipments and revenues.

According to the 1997 Tape Drive Head/Media Market and Technology Report (200 pages, $775) from Peripheral Research (Santa Barbara, CA), unit demand is estimated to exceed 6.2 million drives in 1997, up from 5.9 million in 1996.

As for components, 1997 tape head shipments will surpass 72 million as media shipments push 18 million.

Iomega is the overall leader in tape cartridge drives (19%} and Seagate in head production (31%}, while Imation in tape media.

Over the past year, the industry has gone through many changes. Most notable is the growth in the mid-range sector. Eight new tape formats were announced in 1996 and early 1997: DDS-3 (4mm DAT), AIT (8mm helical), MLR1 (QIC DC}, NCTP (half-inch cartridge}, DLT7000 (half-inch serpentine}, 3570 (half-inch cartridge), DST (19mm helical) and the DMI (QIC-Wide). Most of these are proprietary technologies.

Overall tape trends are up; the mid-range tape products show robust growth for the foreseeable future (4mm, 8mm, DLT), as well as the high-end markets (34xx, 35xx, 19mm). However, the general trends in the QIC markets reveal a slowdown beginning this year. Removable storage alternatives are cropping up in several market segments that will compete with tape at some levels.

Regardless, tape will remain the lowest cost per megabyte storage device in the storage industry for several years to come, according to the study, and for this reason it will remain as the primary choice for many existing as well as emerging computing applications.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 111, published on April 1997.