WW Market of Tape Cartridges Down 10% Quarterly

According to Back-Up Tape Tracker ($2,750) report from Santa Clara Consulting Group backup tape cartridge sales amounted to $190.94 MM in 2Q10.

LTO accounted for 82.8% of total with sales of $158.13 MM. The media market is expected to have sales of $176.88 MM in the next quarter. LTO sales declined slightly to 5.8 MM units in Q2 with volumes off in generations 1, 2, 3 and 4. LTO-4 was down -6%. It accounted for 46% of unit sales and 47% of dollars. LTO-3 declined -9%. Its volume represented 35% of units and 29% of dollars. LTO-2 and LTO-1 were both significantly lower. LTO-2 accounted for 15% of units and 13% of dollars. LTO-5 gained traction accounting for 3% of unit sales. It is expected to see strong growth in Q3. Hewlett-Packard led the LTO market with a 32% share. Fuji was the second largest supplier. Total LTO volumes are expected to be slightly down in Q3.

The DDS/DAT cartridge volume decreased to 1.1 MM units in Q2. DAT-72 accounted for 38% of unit sales and 44% of the value of the segment. DAT-160 accounted for 22% of the value of the segment and DAT-320 held 4%. HP led the DDS/DAT market with a 63% share. Segment dollar sales amounted to $8.70 MM.

DLT-S cartridge sales amounted to .2 MM units. Quantum led the segment. It was followed by HP and Fuji. DLT-S dollar sales are expected to be $9.1 MM in the next quarter. DLT-V sales were slightly down at .1 MM units. Their value was $3.97 MM. Quantum led the segment with a 26% share. HP was second at 25%. DLTtape IV cartridge sales accounted for 61% of units and VS-1 the balance. Total segment sales are expected to be down in Q3.

AIT media models support their respective installed bases of drives. Total AIT cartridge sales volume in the quarter amounted to .1 MM units. Sony had a 94% share in the segment.

Shipments of QIC cartridges in the quarter totaled .06 MM units. Their value was $3.58 MM. Imation dominated the segment with a market share of 95%.

The 8mm metal particle cartridge amounted to .02 MM units worth $0.08 MM. Sony led the segment with a 56% market share. Tandberg supplied 8 mm metal evaporated cartridges for its VXA and Mammoth drives. It sold .04 MM units in the quarter.

Comments

LTO continues to be the dominant tape format largely in front of DDS/DAT. All the others are now insignificant and will disappear.

But even LTO, representing now 83% of the total market, is going down. The only exception is LTO-5, slightly increasing because it's a new offering that will progressively replaces older LTO-1 to LTO-4.

From 1Q10 to 2Q10, the worldwide market of tape cartridges decreased by 10%. That's even the same for LTO, by 8%, and SCCG expects a slightly decline from 2Q10 to 3Q10.