Western Digital boosts capacity after sales rise

Disk drive manufacturer announces product line revamp to face up to competition

As disk drive manufacturer Western Digital announced 46 per cent growth in turnover for its last fiscal
quarter to 28 December, it emerged that the company has revamped its product line to counter competition from rival Seagate.

The move means its mainstream products increase their data capacity from 250GB per platter to 320GB per platter. Last week, the vendor reported second-quarter revenue of $2.2bn (£1.1bn), comprising $2.08bn of hard-drive revenue and $120m of revenue from media and substrate sales.

Hard-drive revenue increased by 46 per cent over the same period last year on shipments of approximately 34.2 million units, a year-on-year increase of about 40 per cent in total unit volume.
Since 54 per cent of Q2 hard-drive revenue was derived from non-desktop PC sources, including hard drives for notebook PCs, consumer electronics and Western Digital-branded product retail sales, some onlookers claim the vendor is anxious to boost its desktop high-definition sales.

However, in a statement, John Coyne, chief executive of Western Digital, played down that claim.
“We are very pleased with our December quarter results and continue to be excited about our prospects in addressing the surging global demand for high-capacity storage in multiple consumer and business markets,” he said.