Demand for portable storage on the increase

Portable HDDs are the most popular storage device as overall demand for personal storage is on the up

Portable Hard Disk Drives (HDD) were the top selling UK storage device in May, representing a quarter of the overall market, according to research firm GfK Marketing Services.

The analyst firm, which tracked all HDDs sold through both retail outlets and the channel in the UK, said that there is a rising demand for large amounts of email, photo, music and video storage, along with a call for innovative products, especially in the 2.5in drive market, with a total of 23 vendors directly competing for market share.

The market is driven by technical convergence between electronic devices and increasing government pressure to ensure that business information is archived.

Philip Wagner, HDD market expert at GfK, said that there are several reasons for this increase in demand.

“There has been a number of trends and drivers, in particular the need for storage of local information. With many end-users using external HDDs as a back-up system.

“End-users are looking at mobility, size, weight, design, security, bandwidth, RPM and density of capacity,” Wagner said.

Paul Talbut, chief executive of storage VAR hps, said: “The general demand for information storage will continue unabated. We cannot see why there would be a slowdown.

“The rise in demand for mobile HDDs is due to the amount of personal data that is now stored. People want more information at their fingertips. Regulatory compliances are having an impact and the Freedom of Information Act has opened this [market] up,” he added.