It looks like Irvine-based Western Digital Corp. has regained the title as world’s top-selling maker of disk drives.
Preliminary quarterly reports and data indicate the company recaptured the crown in disk drive unit sales in the June quarter.
Western Digital shipped 71 million hard-disk drives in the second quarter, 31% more than a year ago and 61% more than the March quarter. The company’s totals were buoyed by its March buy of Hitachi Global Systems Technologies Ltd. for $4.8 billion, according to analysts.
Cupertino-based rival Seagate Technology LLC shipped 66 million units.
Seagate overtook Western Digital in unit sales in the fourth quarter of 2011, ending a title Western Digital maintained for more than two years. Earlier this year it acquired the hard-disk-drive business of Samsung Electronic Co. in South Korea for $1.4 billion.
Western Digital was among the hardest-hit manufacturers in Thailand, as widespread floods and equipment damage forced both of its plants there to shut down for months late last year.
The company typically ships more than half its disk drives from Thailand, where it employs some 37,000 people.
Hard-disk drives store and allow access to data.
Western Digital’s disk drives go into computers, external storage devices, corporate networks and consumer electronics such as DVR players.
Western Digital and Seagate could see market share gains in the next two quarters as ultrabooks powered by Intel processors are projected to see heavy adoption, according to industry watchers.
Framingham, Mass.-based market researcher International Data Corp. forecasts hard-disk drive sales to grow 7.7% in 2012 after declining 4.5% last year.
Pandaria Launch
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s online subscriptions bear watching this quarter, as the Irvine-based game maker launches its latest World of Warcraft installation.
Mists of Pandaria, the fourth expansion set to its flagship WoW franchise, will be released digitally and in retail stores Sept. 25 for about $40. Special collector’s editions with bonus items are priced higher.
Blizzard began taking presales July 25 for the game, which can be followed in several languages, including English, Korean and German.
Blizzard bills the Mists of Pandaria as a game in which players clash off the coast of a lost continent, where they’ll “unearth ancient secrets,” encounter new allies, and help reignite a long-running feud between the Horde and Alliance.
“Mists of Pandaria contains the biggest variety of new content we’ve ever created for a World of Warcraft expansion,” Blizzard Chief Executive and cofounder Mike Morhaime said.
Blizzard ended the first quarter with about 10.2 million World of Warcraft subscribers, roughly the same number as at the end of the fourth quarter.
The fantasy game remains the top multiplayer online role playing game but had seen some 900,000 gamers drop Warcraft subscriptions the preceding two quarters.
Blizzard’s customers pay about $40 for World of Warcraft and $15 a month to play it online.
Blizzard’s Santa Monica-based parent, Activision Blizzard Inc., was scheduled to report its June quarter earnings last week after deadline. The company ultimately is part of France-based Vivendi SA, which bought Activision in 2008 and combined it with Blizzard in a deal valued at about $10 billion.
Vivendi is looking for a cash buyer to take its 61% stake in Activision amid mounting debt and an effort to pare down disparate operations. Vivendi’s stake in Activision is valued at about $8.2 billion.
Broadcom Test Chips
Broadcom Corp.’s latest Wi-Fi chips will be used as the industry standard to test and validate competing products.
The Irvine-based company earned the designation from Austin, Texas-based Wi-Fi Alliance for its chips that allow smart phones or notebook computers to automatically and securely connect to access points at retail outlets and other locations equipped with Wi-Fi.
“As other devices seek Passpoint certification, they will be tested against Broadcom technology to ensure compliance with the standard,” said Clint Brown, associate director of Broadcom’s Wireless Connectivity Combo Group.
The Wi-Fi Alliance established its Certified Passpoint program in June.
Microsemi Award
Aliso Viejo-based chipmaker Microsemi Corp. was named Outstanding Technology Company at TechAmerica’s 19th Annual Orange County High-Tech Innovation Awards.
Judging criteria included community leadership, competitive advantages, technological breakthroughs and other factors.
Microsemi acquired Canadian chipmaker Zarlink Semiconductor Inc. for $633 million in October in its largest deal to date.
