A year after the flooding in Thailand devastated the hard disk drive (HDD) industry, production has returned to normal levels, according to IHS iSuppli. In fact, HDD shipments to the computer market are expected to reach record levels by the end of the year.
This year, HDD shipments to the computer market are forecast to rise 4.3 percent from last year, to 524 million units, the research firm said in a press release. Demand from the enterprise market and the release of Windows 8 are behind the uptick.
The increase “is the result of greater demand from the consumer and enterprise PC segments, both of which continue to clamor for disk space in order to hold storage-intensive media like music, videos and other forms of social media content,” Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at IHS iSuppli, said in the release. “As downloadable media content becomes more readily accessible and affordable, so will the quest for storage space continue in order to satisfy unremitting demand.”
HDD manufacturing and component supply have completely recovered from the Thailand floods, Zhang said. HDD shipments are expected to continue to rise through 2016. According to IHS iSuppli, demand will be driven by nearly all segments of the computer market, including desktops, notebooks, enterprise servers, and storage systems. Ultrabooks will also give the market a boost.
İ wonder whether this increased supply levels will cause a noticeable reduction in prices for the consumers.
@Cryptoman: I don't think the increased supply will have an impact on the prices in the next two, three months. There's already a sufficient demand and a gap in the market that the supply will fulfill. Once that's done with, then the prices may fall if the supply remains constant.
Cryptoman: I dont think that will happen. There are so many vendors in the market but prices will remain the same.
Nice observation Crypto , it depends on the availability but probably yes , I hope to see a small reduction on the price.
@Cryptoman,
If the forecasts are accurate, we can expect that prices will be affected. Besides prices reduction, there is another good news: it is good sign that the global economy is recovering.
Nemos I don't think there will be much if a difference here in price since this is not a monopoly market and vendors are there everywhere. So no fir a price change IMO
Hospice I don't think the forecast can define the price changes here since they know even they do not reduce the price the buyers still be there since there is no other alternative
Why not ? I do not see any reason why there should not be a price reduction. It might not be a big one but surely a reduction is expected
Yrs there are more than enough vendors and that Is the reason why a price reduction will happen since everyone will try to sell their own at any cost . True there is no alternative but it can't hold the price
Congratulations to the everyone involved in getting production back on track in the devasted areas. This is a miracluous feat of human perseverance and ingenuity.
This scarcity might have promoted Solid State Drive to make them more popular and lower in cost.
HDD shipments to the computer market are expected to reach record levels by the end of the year.
@Barbara, thanks for the post. This is really good news. Finally we are seeing recovery in HDD market, this clearly shows that market is showing signs of recovery after deep recession. Lets hope this is just the beginning of the next uptrend.
Nemos I don't think there will be much if a difference here in price since this is not a monopoly market and vendors are there everywhere.
@hash.era, commodity prices are rising rapidly and I am sure this rise will eventually impact this market as well.
it is good sign that the global economy is recovering.
@Hospice_Houngbo, no doubt global economy is recovering, but lets not forget that most of the recovery is because of stimulus being given by the government. Let's hope this recovery will continue even if the stimulus is withdrawn by the government.
As I have said here many times the only thing we can do sometimes is to wait and we will see but the important fact is that the hard disk drive has recovered.
>>demand will be driven by nearly all segments of the computer market, including desktops, notebooks, enterprise servers, and storage systems<<
The demand would be driven by enterprise and storage machines especially. Meanwhile, a big plus for HD market and that would probably drive down soaring prices being experiencing since the disaster occured.
The recovery of Thailand HDD market is a good sign for consumers as now dont have to switch to expensive alternates as cheaper products will be available from Thailand.
@ Tirlapur
I dont know about the level of reliance on government but the government might not withdraw support as I believe, financially the government is not dependant on HDD market as there are many agriculture products as well in which Thailand excels.
@ hash.era
I doubt that the HDD market was dependant on Thailand. IMO, Thailand is successful because of its ability to produce at a lower cost.
Barbara, what about pricing. It seems that for last 2-3 months prices are also gone up due to this demand.
In prior blogs, I believe one of the research companies estimated that prices will also start to decline once manufacturing has ramped up. However, I think they will remain slightly above pre-flood levels becuase demand has also rebounded.
At what level you want to reduce the price nimanthad ? I dont see a need for that here .
Hash: Sellin point would be the ideal since it will make customers more attracted towads the product. The reduction should be highlighted though.
nimantha: Fine move but I do not understand the concept of having it highlighted… How are you going to do that ?
That is what marketing is for … Have to plan it via marketing.
Ok so you feel marketing alone can handle this ?
Surely its something which themarketing team should look into but that eos not meant should be handled only by them. It does involve other factors too.
Like what ? I know that its not solely into marketing but its something that they should focus more on
Focusing is something where as performing is totally different from the above mentioned. I think focusing is ok as long as it can be done but if not you have to make it forcefully work since thee is a demand for the product.
nimantha.d: May be true in definition but when you consieder the work flow and the out put expected out of it , both have lots of things in common.
No its a different entity altogether. There may be similarities here and there but they operate seperately
OK that sounds quite clear to me but what do you really mean by operate differently ? The functionality is it ?
The SSD prices have dropped significantly since this time last year. I saw a 160GB SSD for less than $100 on sale the other day.
Yes Hash, the functionality here should operate differently. That will boost up the speed abit.
@ Nimanthad:In order to boost the speed itself do you think we should go through such a radical change ? Or do you feel that there are so many other functional benifits involved in it ?
Yes hash since this will be the major factor to boost the speed of a HD