Global external disc storage systems factory revenue drops

According to the latest report from International Data Corp. (IDC), the worldwide external disc storage systems factory revenues fell by 0.9 per cent YoY, totalling just over $5.9 billion in 1Q13. For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disc storage systems market generated $7.7 billion in revenue, representing a decline of 3.2 per cent from last year's Q1. Total disc storage systems capacity shipped reached 7.8 exabytes, growing 26.4 per cent YoY added the market research firm.

"Reduced demand within developed markets caused global sales of external disc systems to fall slightly during 1Q13," said Eric Sheppard, research director, storage at IDC. "Emerging markets drove growth within the global market but this was not enough to offset declines elsewhere. Independent storage suppliers were better positioned to capitalise on this new level of demand than their competitors, some of whom are currently working through product transitions and declining server sales."

EMC maintained its lead in the external disc storage systems market with 30.4 per cent revenue share during the quarter, followed by NetApp and IBM with 14.9 per cent and 10.9 per cent respective market share. Hitachi and HP finished the quarter in a statistical tie for the number 4 position with 8.9 per cent and 8.5 per cent of external sales, respectively.

The total open networked disc storage market (NAS combined with non-mainframe SAN) grew 0.4 per cent YoY during the quarter to just over $5.1 billion in revenues. EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total open networked storage market with 33.4 per cent revenue share, followed by NetApp's 17.1 per cent revenue share.

In the Open SAN market, which grew just 1.3 per cent YoY, EMC was the leading vendor with 31.2 per cent revenue share, followed by IBM in second with 12.6 per cent market share and HP and Hitachi tied for third with 10.8 per cent each. The NAS market declined 2.2 per cent YoY, led by EMC with 39.6 per cent revenue share and followed by NetApp with a 37.4 per cent share.