Nidec, a Japan-based motor manufacturer company responsible for producing 85% of all HDD spindle motors, has predicted that the global shipment of HDDs is expected to fall by a significant margin. Specifically, it expects the sales figures to reduce by approximately 50% year-on-year by 2019.
Statistically, Nidec says that the demand for HDDs had been on the decline for several years. From 2010 to 2018, total HDD sales had reduced from 650 million units to 375 million units. One major – if not primary – factor for the sharp decline is due to the increased sales of solid-state drives (SSD) over the year.
Compared to an HDD, SSDs are significantly faster and more reliable than the mechanical storage medium. This, coupled with the ongoing and steady fall in price for storage devices, has made SSDs more appealing than before.
It’s not just the average consumers that are looking towards SSDs either. Data centres are already in the process of using SSDs as part of their hot storage solutions, thanks to their consistent read and write speeds. Even notebook manufacturers are investing heavily in SSDs, and storage manufacturers such as Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba have invested heavily in the medium over the last several years.
Of course, that’s not to say that these manufacturers are about to give up pushing their HDDs. Rather than just focused on the consumer markets, these brands market specialised HDD solutions for the enterprise markets.
(Source: TechPowerUp, AnandTech)
