Toshiba Corp. led the market for tiny disk drives that go into digital music players, phones and other gadgets in the second half of 2005.
Tokyo-based Toshiba, which has its Americas unit in Irvine as part of Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., held 29% of the market for drives used in consumer electronics, according to the latest report by Framingham, Mass.-based IDC Research Inc.
Another report by Los Altos-based TrendFocus Inc. also put Toshiba at No. 1.
Toshiba, with its background in consumer electronics, has been aggressive about landing drives in gadgets.
Orange County’s other player, Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp., has taken its usual go-slow approach.
Toshiba and others tout huge growth for the market, though it’s early on. Most agree that consumer electronics will provide more growth for drive makers than computers.
“Ten years ago, (disk drive makers) only had one market with personal computers,” said John Rydning, the analyst with IDC who authored the report. “Now they have multiple markets. The industry is making improvements to disk drives.”
For gadgets, disk drives are getting smaller while still allowing room for scads of storage space. That makes them a good option for devices that use audio and video,an area that Toshiba dominates.
Meanwhile, traditional larger disk drives have found a home with digital video recorders, an active market for Western Digital.
Disk drive sales for consumer electronics are expected to grow at about twice the rate as sales for desktop and laptop computers. IDC expects drives for consumer electronics to go from 16% of overall drive sales in 2005 to 27% in 2009.
Toshiba’s reign as the biggest electronics drive maker in the second half of 2005 could be short-lived.
Scotts Valley-based Seagate Technology is nearing the close of its buy of Milpitas-based Maxtor Corp. Seagate counts 23% of the market with Maxtor notching 8%, according to IDC.
Combined, Seagate and Maxtor would push ahead of Toshiba.
For more on this story, see the Feb. 27 edition of the Business Journal.
