Disk drives dominate in consumer electronics

Toshiba Storage Device Division has topped all HDD manufacturers in shipments of hard drives for consumer electronics devices.

Toshiba Storage Device Division has topped all HDD manufacturers in shipments of hard drives for consumer electronics devices.

According to figures from analysts at IDC, Toshiba has a global market share of 27.5% for all HDDs shipped for use in consumer electronics devices such as MP3 players, digital media recorders, GPS navigation systems and in-car entertainment systems.

When excluding 3.5in HDDs, Toshiba has managed to secure a substantial 43.9% market share.

Mobile consumer electronics devices offer the largest industry opportunity for HDD manufacturers.

By 2007, IDC estimates that 20% of all hard disk shipments would be for use in portable music players, personal video recorders, television recording boxes, multifunction mobile phones, game consoles and other consumer electronics.

This is expected to rise to 40% by 2008.

Toshiba SDD's dedication to delivering against this consumer demand for HDD technology was underpinned throughout 2005 with a series of industry firsts.

It was the first company to commercially ship PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording) hard drives that also set new records in area density.

It was also the first to launch the world's first multigigabyte sub-one-inch hard drive - an ideal solution for the growing storage demands of highly portable multimedia devices such as smartphones, videophones, digital cameras and camcorders.

Furthermore, to strengthen its technology and industry leadership, Toshiba SDD recently launched the "Hard disk drive revolution" design competition.

The competition offers designers and design students the chance to submit concept designs based on Toshiba's world record breaking 0.85in HDD.

A panel of executives from leading consumer brands including Bose, Archos, Flybook and Freecom will judge the designs.

To date the competition has been an overwhelming success with 400 designers from 32 different countries registered.

"The consumer electronics market offers a great opportunity for HDD manufacturers but also several challenges", explained Martin Larsson, General Manager, Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division".

It is now down to the industry to nurture this demand by bringing to market increasingly higher capacity drives in ever shrinking form factors".

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