4Q23 HDD Capacity Rises 9% Q/Q to 214EB

This market report is an abstract of SDAS: HDD Information Service CQ4 ’23 Quarterly Update – Executive Summary from Trendfocus, Inc., published on January 26, 2024.

CQ4’23 HDD Capacity Rises 9% Q/Q to 214EB While Units Hold at 29 Million
Nearline capacity rebounds 16% sequentially to 156EB on nearly 10 million units

Seagate‘s capacity shipments of 95.13EB advanced 6%. Nearline capacity of 70.98EB jumped 14% Q/Q on 8% higher unit shipments of 4.53 million. Performance enterprise HDD units also increased 8% Q/Q to 0.76 million. The company’s branded (consumer) HDD sales in both desktop and mobile form factors increased from the prior quarter – the only HDD manufacturer to post higher sequential sales in the category. Market-wide weakness in surveillance demand drove down 3.5″ CE HDDs. Average capacity of 8.24TB lifted 11% Q/Q while the company’s total unit share of 40.0% slipped 2.0 percentage points sequentially.

Toshiba‘s capacity shipments increased 4% and 5%, respectively Q/Q. 18.90EB of nearline capacity shipped, a 2% Q/Q rise while nearline units grew 7% over the same period to 1.50 million. The company also posted a 15% Q/Q growth in performance enterprise HDDs shipped, rising to 0.70 million units. Both desktop and mobile branded shipments fell, but slightly higher non-branded mobile HDDs resulted in total mobile HDD unit growth sequentially. Average HDD capacity of 4.45TB inched up 1% from the prior quarter while Toshiba’s total market share of 22.5% lifted 2.5 percentage points Q/Q.

Western Digital posted a solid 20% Q/Q jump in nearline HDD unit shipments to 3.90 million units while nearline capacity jumped an even larger 22.5% over the same period to 66.61EB. The stronger nearline shipments offset flat-to-reduced shipments in other HDD segments resulting in a 4% total unit rise. Total capacity shipped of was 14% higher than the prior quarter and average HDD capacity of 8.36TB lead the industry due to an average nearline capacity of 17.08TB. The company gained 1.2 percentage points of market share Q/Q to 37.5%.