225% Growth in HDD Capital Equipment Spending From 2010 to 2015

Coughlin Associates just published a report The 2010 Hard Disk Drive Capital Equipment and Technology Report ($7,000)

Highlights:

• 225% growth is estimated in HDD capital equipment spending from 2010 to 2015 driven by three factors: unit demand doubling between 2010 and 2015, new technology introductions such as HAMR and patterned media and updating facilities and processes.
• Total industry spending on capital equipment in 2010 is expected to be about $3.0 B with 67% of this spent on process equipment, 26% on production test and 7% on metrology.
• In 2010 head, media and drive capital equipment spending is estimated at 32%, 49% and 19% respectively
• Average HDD capital equipment spending per year between 2007 and 2015 is estimated at about 8.1% of HDD industry revenue, with this percentage increasing in the last years of this period.
• Strong demand for HDDs in 2010 and 2011 combined with restrained manufacturing capacity will help keep inventories low and average HDD prices and revenues high, assisting in capital equipment investments.
• Continued technology development will make 10 TB 3.5-inch HDDs, 5 TB 2.5-inch HDDs and 1 TB 1.8-inch HDDs possible by 2015.
• Areal density growth may slow from 40-50% annually to a lower rate during part of the projection period while the HDD industry makes a major technology transition to heat assisted recording, patterned media or shingle writing.

This report is now available from Coughlin Associates. It provides 189 pages of analysis of technology developments and capital equipment spending to sustain the growth and development of the hard disk drive industry.  25 tables and 109 figures give analysis and projections out to 2015.  This is the 14th report produced by Coughlin Associates (and before that by Peripheral Research) on this subject.