Western Digital was the company that suffered the most from the floods in Thailand. The company has recovered and completed a record quarter thanks to the high prices and is once again the world’s largest supplier of harddrives.
The floods in Thailand paralyzed the harddrive industry and Western Digital lost the most, but the truth is that the disaster was one the best things that could have happened to the harddrive industry. The sudden lack of harddrives pushed prices to levels not seen before, which boosted revenues and profit margins.. We earlier reported that Western Digital’s revenue nearly doubled and the company profit was up 375 percent, year-to–year.
Western Digital was surpassed by Seagate, but once again back on top with a market share of 45 percent. This is much thanks to the acquisition of Hitachi GST. Seagate acquired Samsung’s harddrive division earlier and is at 42 percent, while Toshiba is third and last with 13 percent. With only three actors on the market we estimate it will take a long time for prices to reach the same levels as before the floods.
Up and comer Toshiba mainly makes and sells 2.5″ harddrives, but has also started makring 3.5″ drives lately. There are no guarantees the company will get a big enough breakthrough to make it worthwhile in the long run and if so, Western Digital and Seagate will remain as the only harddrive manufacturers for desktops.
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