Thai floods send SSD sales soaring

Evidence is emerging that hard drive product shortages are fuelling sales of solid state alternatives

Dwindling supplies of hard disk drives (HDDs) in the channel have caused sales of solid state drives (SSDs) through distribution to soar, claims analyst Context.

The market watcher said unit sales of SSDs through the distribution channel in western Europe had risen by 56 per cent since flooding knocked out production at HDD factories in Thailand during week 40.

Meanwhile, unit sales of HDDs in western Europe are about a third (34 per cent) of what they were in week 39.

The findings will come as no surprise to many channel onlookers who have suggested that demand for SSDs would rise, as VARs, OEMs and end users seek alternatives to HDD.

Speaking to ChannelWeb, Alexandre Mesguich, vice president of enterprise research at Context, said that despite the uptick in SSD sales, the technology is still too expensive for many.

"SSD sales have picked up, but this is not a sign of a big technology shift [away from HDD], as the price of SSDs is still very high. The products are being purchased by a very niche set of customers."

This includes end users who require high-performance drives for gaming PCs or mobility purposes and those who do not use a lot of local disk drive space.

"If you are a company that buys, say, 40,000 PCs a year at $700 [£448] to $800, adding in an SSD will lead to a massive increase in cost," said Mesguich. "Unless there is a significant price reduction, which would allow OEMs [PC vendors], such as HP and Dell, to make PCs with SSDs available at an affordable price, it will remain niche."

Dave Stevinson, sales director at distributor VIP Computers, said Context's findings are very similar to its own.

"Between the beginning of October to the end of November, our [SSD] sales volume is up by exactly 52.9 per cent," he explained. "We are witnessing a trend where PC assemblers are using an SSD in coexistence with an HDD."

Paul Grimshaw, head techy at Uxbridge-based IT repairs firm Totally Techy, said interest in SSD is rising amongst business users.

"Most consumers are sticking with HDD, but businesses are taking it more seriously as they tend to have less data stored on their computers and can get smaller drives for good prices," explained Grimshaw.

Meanwhile, the prices hikes that have blighted the HDD market in recent weeks seem to calming down.

"We have a stock pile [of HDDs] now and I guess a lot of other companies have down the same, which means demand is down," he added. "This might change as we start eating into that stock holding."