SEAGATE SOLIDIFIES LEADERSHIP POSITION IN GROWING DISC DRIVE INDUSTRY BY PROVIDING INNOVATION FOR THE "TERABYTE LIFE"
Analysts name Seagate #1 in Consumer Electronics, #1 in Enterprise, #1 in PCs and Growing in Mobile Computing, as the Company Scales its Product Line and Operations to Meet the Growing Demand for Hard Drives
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.—11 May 2005—Bolstered by record quarterly unit shipments and revenue, Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) today confirmed analyst reports that it has strengthened its lead as the top name in hard disc drives by holding the #1 position in overall market share, and the #1 spot in 3 of the 4 key markets, including Consumer Electronics, Enterprise and Desktop computing*. Seagate is also the only company of the top four competitors in the Mobile/Notebook Computing market that is growing in unit shipments.
"Hard disc drives are everywhere now, and they are enabling a digital lifestyle in ways the world has never before seen," said Bill Watkins, Seagate chief executive officer. "Our industry is at the beginning of a growth cycle that could be as big as the PC revolution of the 80s. Consumer electronics is the primary growth driver, because people are voracious when it comes to getting more gigabytes for their MP3 players, their TVs, gaming devices and PCs. And cell phones, autos, digital cameras and storage in your home appliances will soon be eating up even more gigabytes and terabytes of hard disc drives."
The disc drive industry is projected to exceed $30 billion dollars and 550 million units annually by 2008, according to Gartner Research, up from $21.4 billion in 2004. Seagate alone is shipping almost 10 million more drives per quarter than it did just two years ago. This type of growth requires thoughtful and appropriate capital and R&D investment to expand product offerings and production, and Seagate has announced plans to incrementally add capacity in the component area - heads and discs - and add drive assembly and test capacity to meet this growth.
Seagate also continues to expand its broad product line, which currently enables the company to address 97% of the total available market for disc drives. Bringing to market a full spectrum of disc drives ranging from 1-inch CE drives to Notebook Computers, PCs and Enterprise drives, Seagate has driven product innovation and reliability to new heights. Seagate expects to announce additional products in the coming months that will further penetrate the growing CE and home markets, as well as its traditional computing markets, and provide a number of industry "firsts."
The most recent report from Gartner Dataquest* once again identified Seagate as the overall leader in hard drive shipments. Among the ten companies tracked by Gartner Dataquest, Seagate holds over 28% of the total market for disc drives, more than ten percentage points higher than the nearest competitor. Seagate also bolstered its #1 spot in the booming CE market with nearly 30% market share. In addition to being the most widely adopted disc drive for hand-held music players, Seagate drives have been adopted by more TV digital video recorders than any other brand.
The company's Enterprise storage market share was 54% in the March quarter, more than two times that of its nearest competitor. "Enterprise storage is experiencing growth that we haven't seen since the Y2K build up, and we lead that market by a wide margin," added Watkins. In the Desktop PC market, Seagate continued to lead all competitors, with over 31% market share. The March quarter marked Seagate's third consecutive quarter of share growth in the Mobile/Notebook Computing space as it has grown from a new entrant to 15% of the market in less than two years.
"Digital convergence is enabling an entire new lifestyle, and it is one that is fueled by hard disc drives," said Watkins. "This convergence is to today's electronics industry what client/server computing was to the 90's. The big winners in client/server were providers of the operating system, the processors, and the network. The major enablers of digital convergence are the application software, disc drives, and high bandwidth networking. The market for disc drives is clearly growing in all segments. And Seagate's unique ability to deliver technology leadership, cost leadership, and the broadest product portfolio in the industry has positioned us as the category leader in both traditional computing and the rapidly growing consumer electronics market."
Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide-range of Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, and Consumer Electronics applications. Seagate's business model leverages technology leadership and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and quality to its global customers, and to be the low cost producer in all markets in which it participates. The company is committed to providing award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world's growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and at www.seagate.com.
Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Wave logo are U.S. registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC. Specified storage capacities reflect standard configurations exclusive of operating system or other software formatting.
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