Seagate takes 29 years to sell one billion HDDs and just four years to achieve second billion

While Seagate Technology has been manufacturing and selling hard-disk drives (HDDs) since 1980, it took the company 29 years to ship out one billion units. It was a remarkable achievement then, and one that was celebrated again this past Monday, when the company shipped out its two billionth unit — just four years after its original milestone moment. 

 
Seagate’s Savio 10.4 Hard Drive

Seagate is the first HDD company to achieve this number of shipments. The recent, somewhat explosive demand for the technology can largely be attributed to the demand for storage from larger cloud infrastructures, expansion in the number of social networks available, increase in how many mobile apps are on the market, and more.

“This is truly an impressive accomplishment and I am proud to lead this company as we celebrate this success,” said Steve Luczo, president, CEO, and chairman of Seagate. “This achievement is a testament to the commitment of our employees whose relentless dedication and personal pride continue to be the fabric of this company.”

Analysts estimate that over four billion hours of user-generated content is watched per month on YouTube alone, and that user-generated HD video, pictures, and smartphone clip sharing storage needs will quadruple from 2013 to 2015.

An increase in demand for digital content will only continue to fuel the need for more storage.

“The ever-growing number of mobile and content capture devices using cloud services is fueling the growth of digital content,” according to John Rydning, IDC's research vice president, for hard drives and semiconductors. “Mobile devices and the cloud are coming together to drive ongoing demand for hard-disk drives, with shipments reaching more than 585 million units in 2013, and hard-disk drive Terabyte shipments worldwide growing at a 30 percent 2012-2016 compound annual growth rate.”

Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, a technology research and consulting company, explains market projections a bit further: “By 2015 households which today routinely consume one terabyte of data a month are expected to generate 20 times the amount of data than they currently save.” He adds, “Consumers' continued appetites for securely saving and organizing high-definition multimedia requires higher performance and the most trusted and dependable drives. Seagate's drives and technology roadmap provide the ideal solution for consumer's soaring need for storage in the home — and away; now, and in the future.”

Story via: seagate.com