Hard disk drives (HDDs) are an important computer component used for storing and retrieving digital information. They are found in most desktop and laptop PCs as well as many enterprise storage systems. There are a number of major manufacturers producing HDDs for the consumer and business markets. In this article, we will examine the key HDD manufacturers and provide an overview of their market share and segmentation.
Key HDD Manufacturers
Seagate
Seagate is one of the largest manufacturers of HDDs in the world and has been a leader in the industry for over 40 years. The company produces a full range of HDD products including enterprise, cloud, personal storage and client HDD solutions. Some key facts about Seagate:
- Founded in 1979 and based in California, USA
- Over 50,000 employees globally
- Manufacturing facilities in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Northern Ireland
- Market leader with around 38% unit share of the HDD market in Q1 2022 according to TrendFocus data
- Major product brands include BarraCuda, IronWolf and Exos
Seagate HDDs span a wide capacity range from 500GB laptop drives up to 20TB+ enterprise drives. The company focuses both on performance and high capacity for enterprises and consumers.
Western Digital
Western Digital (WD) is Seagate’s biggest competitor and also one of the largest data storage companies overall. Key facts:
- Founded in 1970 in California, USA
- Over 60,000 employees worldwide
- Major manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines
- Around 29% market share of the HDD market in Q1 2022, just behind Seagate according to TrendFocus
- Leading brands such as WD Blue, WD Black, Ultrastar and Gold
WD manufactures a full range of HDDs for consumers and enterprises. The company is also well-known for its WD brand portable external hard disk drives. WD acquired Hitachi’s HDD business in 2012 which helped boost its market share.
Toshiba
Toshiba is a diversified Japanese multinational conglomerate that manufactures HDDs through its Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation division. Key facts:
- Founded in 1875, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan
- Over 140,000 employees globally
- Major manufacturing facilities in the Philippines, China and Japan
- Around 17% unit share of the HDD market in Q1 2022 per TrendFocus
- Main HDD brand lines include N300, X300, P300 and MG series
Toshiba focuses more on the enterprise and high capacity HDD market rather than consumer drives. The company was runner-up behind Seagate in terms of units shipped in 2021.
Other Notable HDD Manufacturers
While Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba make up the top three HDD vendors by market share, there are several other companies that manufacture HDDs including:
Samsung
Samsung is a leading Korean conglomerate that produces HDDs through its Samsung Electro-Mechanics division. Samsung HDD market share is around 6%. Key product lines include the Samsung Spinpoint and Samsung Enterprise SSD.
Hitachi
Hitachi is a Japanese conglomerate that sold its HDD business to Western Digital in 2012. Prior to this, it was one of the top HDD vendors. Hitachi still manufactures other storage devices and solutions for enterprises.
Micron Technology
Micron is an American company focused on semiconductor and memory products. It manufactures SSDs and other storage solutions. Micron owned the Lexar brand for portable storage and memory cards.
HDD Market Share Breakdown
The HDD market worldwide is an oligopoly dominated by just a handful of major manufacturers. The chart below shows a breakdown of market share among the top vendors based on HDD unit shipments in Q1 2022 according to data from TrendFocus:
| Manufacturer | Market Share |
| Seagate | 38% |
| Western Digital | 29% |
| Toshiba | 17% |
| Samsung | 6% |
| Others | 10% |
As the data shows, Seagate and Western Digital combined account for around two-thirds of the total HDD market. Toshiba has a sizable share at 17% while Samsung makes up the bulk of the remaining share at 6%. The rest of the market is made up of smaller vendors and retailers selling white label HDDs.
HDD Technology
Hard disk drives store data on quickly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. Read/write heads on pivoting arms read and write data to the platters. HDDs have been the traditional workhorse of data storage before the emergence of SSDs. Some key HDD technologies include:
- Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) – Allows for greater data density by aligning magnetic orientations vertically.
- Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) – Increases density by overlapping tracks but can impact performance.
- Helium-filled HDDs – Filling drives with helium reduces friction allowing for thinner platters and heads.
- Energy Assisted Magnetic Recording (EAMR) – Uses an energy source like a laser when writing data to pack bits more closely.
HDD manufacturers are constantly developing new technologies like these to increase capacities while maintaining performance. Advanced server drives now exceed capacities of 20TB using technologies like SMR and helium. Portable consumer HDDs use 2.5″ platters while most internal desktop drives use 3.5″ platters. Enterprise drives designed for data centers are usually 3.5″ and use special interfaces like SCSI and SAS.
SSD vs HDD Comparison
Solid State Drives (SSDs) have emerged as a major competing technology to traditional HDDs. SSDs use integrated flash memory chips to store data rather than magnetic platters. Here is a brief comparison between SSDs and HDDs:
Storage Capacities
- HDDs can offer much larger capacities from 500GB to 10TB+ for consumers and up to 20TB+ for enterprises.
- SSDs typically max out at 8TB for consumers but also have much higher per GB costs.
Performance
- SSDs have much faster data access speeds and use flash memory without any moving parts.
- HDDs have slower access times due to physical read/write heads but continue to improve performance with cached memory.
Durability
- SSDs have no moving parts so they are less prone to damage and failure over time.
- HDDs are mechanical so they have higher failure rates, especially in mobile devices.
Cost
- SSDs are more expensive per gigabyte compared to HDDs.
- Large capacity HDDs 7200+ RPM models offer more storage for less money.
In general SSDs are faster, more durable and power efficient while HDDs offer more storage capacity for the cost. For typical consumer use, a combination of a smaller SSD for the operating system and apps, along with an HDD for data storage, gives a good blend of speed and capacity.
Consumer Storage Trends
Some key trends shaping HDD demand in the consumer storage market include:
- Declining HDD sales as SSDs gain share, especially in mobile PCs and tablets.
- Increasing per HDD capacities mitigating declining unit sales.
- Rising adoption of external portable HDDs for additional storage and backup.
- Growth of personal cloud storage reducing local storage requirements.
- Increased use of HDDs in game consoles, smart TVs, DVRs and home media centers.
Overall the rise of SSDs is negatively impacting consumer HDD shipments. However, factors like higher capacities per drive, lower $/GB, and increased use in home electronics are stabilizing HDD shipments.
Enterprise HDD Demand Drivers
Enterprise HDDs designed for data centers and servers make up a significant portion of the overall market. Some trends influencing enterprise HDD demand:
- Surging growth in data prompting large-scale data center expansion.
- Transition from hard disk to hybrid disk and all-flash storage arrays.
- Increased use of high capacity enterprise HDDs for archival storage.
- Growth in hyperscale and cloud data center infrastructure.
- Larger, more dense enterprise HDD capacities and form factors.
Hyperscale data centers operated by companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon require vast amounts of high capacity enterprise storage. While SSDs are taking share, high capacity HDDs provide affordable bulk data storage.
External Portable HDD Demand
External portable HDDs continue to be popular for consumers and business users for extra storage, backups and transferring data. Trends influencing external HDD demand:
- Falling $/GB making large capacity portable drives more affordable.
- Rising use of external HDDs for game consoles and smart TV media storage.
- Increasing need for backups as local digital data accumulates.
- Greater affordability of ultra high capacity 4TB+ portable drives.
- Strong growth in media content driving demand for storage.
External HDD adoption rose sharply in the early 2000s. While cloud and online backup services are competing solutions, many consumers still prefer having physical backups. High capacity portable drives now make backing up locally more feasible.
Top HDD Manufacturers Comparison
| Seagate | Western Digital | Toshiba | |
| Market share | 38% | 29% | 17% |
| Hard drive brands | BarraCuda, IronWolf, Exos | WD Blue, Black, Ultrastar, Gold | N300, X300, P300, MG Series |
| Product segments | Enterprise, cloud, consumer, PC drives | Enterprise, consumer, PC drives | Enterprise, PC drives |
| Manufacturing regions | China, Malaysia, Thailand, Ireland | Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines | Philippines, China, Japan |
This comparison table summarizes some of the key attributes of the top three HDD vendors worldwide. Seagate leads based on market share. WD and Toshiba manufacture similar product categories. All three companies have major manufacturing centers located in Asia.
Conclusion
The HDD industry has consolidated down to just a few major manufacturers worldwide led by Seagate and Western Digital. The HDD technology continues to evolve and maintain a cost advantage for high capacity bulk storage applications. While SSDs are reducing demand in some segments, HDDs are still essential in enterprises, PCs, game consoles, DVRs and other electronics. Key trends to watch are the growth in data prompting demand for higher capacity drives. However, for applications focused on performance over sheer capacity, SSDs will continue to take share.
