After years in the doldrums it looks like the external HDD market in EMEA is on the rise again.
According to the latest quarterly external HDD report from Futuresource Consulting, in Q4 2013, the industry posted its largest quarter since Q3 2011.
Mats Larsson, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting said that across the 17 countries he tracked in the EMEA region, 6.8 million external HDDs were shipped during the quarter.
That marks a year-on-year growth of 1.8 per cent. If the whole of last year is taken into account the picture is even more positive, with 23.6 million units shipped and year-on-year growth of 9.8 per cent.
Still not fully recovered
The industry still has a little way to go before it eclipses 2010, when shipments of 28 million units were recorded.
"The portable drive segment is pushing market growth, taking share from all other form factors, rising from 75 per cent of the total market in 2012, to 82 per cent last year reflecting the larger capacities available in 2.5" drives and the continuing shift to mobile computing," said Larsson.
The top three vendors, in descending order were Western Digital, Toshiba and Seagate. These three account for 80 percent of the market between them in 2013, up from 72 per cent in 2012.
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