Figures released by market research company CONTEXT, show that sales through distribution of internal hard disk drives (HDD) grew by 36% across Western Europe during the first four months of this year. The HDD market in the United Kingdom grew by 78% with sales of 1TB drives showing a jump of over 52% in sales compared to 31% across Western Europe.
Overall, sales were primarily driven by hard disk drive manufacturers Seagate and Western Digital, with the latter showing sales increasing by an average of +14% per month during the first four months of this year. Both Seagate and Western Digital currently have a market share of about 44% year to date.
Although 500GB drives continue to remain strong, CONTEXT notes that the market has seen a spike in the sale of 1TB drives with Western Digital showing sales tripling over the first four months of the year. This is partly due to a 25% reduction in prices as well as an indication that the market for higher capacity drives is slowly on its way back up to pre-flood levels.
“Although average selling prices in April were still up +58% year on year, we are now seeing prices gradually on their way back down from the high November”, said Senthuran Premakumar, Enterprise Analyst at CONTEXT. “Going forward, we expect to see sales is increasing further for both 1TB as well as other highcapacity drives.”
