Seagate unveils top drives for notebooks

Seagate Technology, the hard disc drive manufacturer, has initiated a strategy to expand its line of notebook hard disc drives by launching the Momentus drives with the industry's highest capacity and performance.

The drive is for computers ranging from high-performance mobile workstations to mainstream laptops.

Explaining the key advantages of these 120 GB drives, Sharad Srivastava, country manager for India, said these have robust design and high shock tolerance which enables mobility in the rugged notebook operating environment.

The notebook market continues to grow, especially with the 2.5 inch drive market expected to grow at 18 per cent in 2005. Seagate has the highest market share of 27 per cent in the entire HDD market and has recorded a healthy year-on-year growth of 28 per cent in volume terms. It has a 85 per cent marketshare in the 40 GB and 80 GB entry level segments and a server market share of 75 per cent.

As a part of its plans to improve customer service, Seagate also launched its SMS customer care programme.

"With Seagate becoming an increasingly popular consumer brand, it will be of tremendous value to our customers to be able to check the status of their product warranty as well as access additional customer service options via mobile phones," said Srivastava.

Rand Lee, senior vice president, global sales said that revenue has increased by 42 per cent in the third quarter of FY05 (January-March), compared to the corresponding quarter of 2004, to reach $1.97 billion.

Shipments of HDDs have registered a record 24.9 million in 2004, compared to 10 million in 2003. The Asia Pacific market is the largest market for Seagate and its HDD marketshare in India is 79 per cent, far ahead of its nearest competitor Samsung which has a market share of 12.3 per cent.

The consumer electronic application market has a very high potential, where Seagate has a 20 per cent marketshare, Lee added. This is the fastest growing segment in the disc drive industry. The company shipped 4.2 million hard disk drives (up nearly three times) in the March quarter in handheld, gaming and DVR applications.

During this quarter, Seagate began volume shipment of its 3-disc 400GB DB35 drives designed for capacity intensive applications such as video on demand and high definition television recording.

On future prospects, Lee said Seagate is confident that with the ongoing customer adoption of its extensive product portfolio, new revenue opportunities and solid operational execution it is well positioned to continue its strong financial performance during the June quarter.