hard disk

The hard disk industry is changing, and it’s going in a perpendicular direction when it comes to the next-generation disk drive technology—perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR). The transition to perpendicular recording means disk drives with a much higher capacity than those using traditional longitudinal magnetic recording. Demand continues to grow for portable storage devices based on hard disk drives (HDDs). While such devices represented only about 5 percent of the total hard drive market in 2003, market research firm In-Stat forecasts a significant growth to 33 percent market share by 2008. In fact, shipments of portable hard disk storage (PHDS) devices are expected to post a 67.7 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2003 to 2008 Suppliers in Asia are ramping up production, with mainland China alone set to turn out US$522 million worth of PHDS products in 2005, a year-on-year increase of over 140％.