History 2002: WW Disk Storage Systems Climb only 1% in 2Q02

The WW disk storage systems market gained 1% sequentially in factory revenue in 2Q02 to $4.7 billion, according to IDC.

HP’s acquisition of Compaq allowed it to lead the market with 25% of total disk storage systems revenue. The merger also allowed HP to pull ahead of EMC to take ≠1 position in external only disk storage systems sales with 20% market share.

“The disk storage systems market has been greatly impacted by the downturn in the U.S. economy over the last year and half. We are currently on track for a double-digit decline year over year. However, this small quarterly increase, combined with a slowing in the rate of price decline, indicates that the disk storage systems market may have reached bottom and should have a stronger foundation for growth over the next few years,” said John McArthur, group VP of IDC’s storage program.

Overall, Sun Microsystems and IBM posted the largest increases in total storage revenue over 1Q02, with 31% and 11% gains, respectively, while Dell benefited from its partnership with EMC, growing 10% in revenue over 1Q02.

“SAN and NAS segments continue to be the bright spots in the market, with each segment showing 4% sequential revenue growth,” said Charlotte Rancourt, research director at IDC’s disk storage systems.

EMC maintained its ≠1 position in both SAN and NAS revenue, with 29% and 38% market share, respectively.

Terabytes continue to outpace revenue with 11% sequential growth, which, however, was well below the growth rates seen in 1999 and 2000. HP held a strong lead with 30% of total terabytes shipped in 2Q. The total disk storage systems market shipped almost 120,000TB, with external terabytes contributing 58% of the total.

EMC, with 24% market share, continued to lead in external terabytes shipped.

“We see ongoing price pressure on the disk storage systems market as the average dollar per gigabyte fell 9% from 1Q02,” said Eric Sheppard, senior research analysts for IDC’s disk storage systems, “but the rate of price decline was less than the prior quarter-over-quarter decline.“

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 177 on October 2002 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.