WD maintains position as world's second largest hard drive manufacturer
Lake Forest (CA) - Western Digital (WD) profited from the increased demand in the hard drive market and mentioned that it has shipped 24.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2006, up 35% from the year-ago quarter. Revenues were up from $1.1 billion in Q4 2005 to $1.4 billion in Q4 2006. Net income climbed 23% from $104 million to $128 million in the same time frame.
WD said that 57% of revenues came from traditional 3.5" desktop hard drives, while 42% came from developing market segments, such as portable 2.5" drives. This compares with a mix in the year-ago quarter of 26% newer markets versus 74% desktop PC revenue in Q4 of last year, which highlights a quickly increasing demand in consumer electronics and portable storage applications : WD said that shipped 2.7 million 2.5" mobile drives and 2.7 million 3.5" units for the PVR/DVR market, compared with 1.4 million and 1.5 million, respectively, a year ago.
This growth has allowed WD to develop into a major player in the hard drive industry that now holds a war chest of cash and short-term investments worth about $830 million.
However, WD, which does not developer hard drive platter technologies by itself but rather relies on third party shipments from companies such as Showa Denko, cannot reach the market reach of market leader Seagate at this time. The company recently posted Q4 revenues of $3.0 billion and profits $140 million. Seagate shipped 41 million drives during Q4 2006.
- Google defuses Google Bombs
- U.S. Nintendo DS sales climb to over 10 million
- PalmOS is now called Garnet OS
- Wii News Channel offers an interactive way to track news
- Rootkits, spam and phishers: CA predicts more sophisticated attacks in 2007
- NEC develops technology to prevent VoIP spam
- AMD expands embedded processor lineup
- Mio aims to ship 3.5 million own-brand PNDs in 2007
- Microsoft squeezes Xbox 360 component suppliers
- Dell takes pre-orders for Vista computers
- Empty store shelves as Vista approaches
- High dynamic range moves into digital photography
- Acer readies full range Vista-certified LCD monitors
- With Intel increasing its technology lead, will AMD become more creative?
- Youtube planning to share revenue with users
- N64 makes first post-launch Wii presence with Mario Kart
- Nine Inch Nails announce simultaneous triple format DVD release
- 2006 cell phone tally tops one billion




