Hitachi guns for second place in HDD market

As the vendor acquires top industry personnel, it plans to grow market share by grabbing second position

HDS branched into SME, investing in new areas

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) is aiming to snatch second place in the global hard disk drive market following the recent appointment of three industry heavyweights.

By driving brand awareness, the vendor is aiming to oust Western Digital from second spot, behind top dog Seagate.
In an executive coup for HGST, former Western Digital chief financial officer Steve Milligan has jumped ship for the same position at HGST. Brendan Collins also recently left Seagate to become HGST’s vice president of product line management.

“With a new managing team, we are focusing on building marketing around the brand and to become firm two in the market,” said Collins.

The vendor will focus on increasing its market share by bringing new products to the table, such as solid state drives.
Another new face at HGST, Dinese Christopher, senior director for worldwide channel marketing, was previously at SGI Storage.

Clive Longbottom, IT service director at analyst Quocirca, said: “When any part of Hitachi feels it is worthwhile to invest in an area, it does ­ take Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) when it branched into SME.”