UK HDD market starts to normalise after explosive start to 2012

Average selling prices up 58 per cent annually last month as 1TB kit flies off the shelves, Context stats reveal

UK average selling prices (ASPs) for hard disk drives (HDDs) are slowly falling again but the market is still showing rapid growth as it readjusts following the impact of last year's Thai floods.

Figures from Context reveal that HDD sales through western European distributors grew 36 per cent annually during 2012's first four months. In the UK sales spiked a massive 78 per cent.

In the 1TB drive segment, the UK market through distribution expanded 52 per cent, compared with a 31 per cent expansion rate across the western Europe region as a whole.

Context notes that while demand for 500GB drives "remains strong", Western Digital has been one of the major forces behind the growth in 1TB sales. The California-based vendor saw regional sales of its 1TB products more than triple year on year in the January-to-April time period.

The market watcher explained that demand for higher-capacity products has started to reignite as the after-effects on the IT industry of last year's natural disasters begin to recede. Sales of 1TB gear were also boosted by a 25 per cent reduction in prices, Context claims.

Western Digital and arch-nemesis Seagate have both enjoyed robust growth in western Europe so far this year, and both firms hold a market share of 44 per cent.

Context enterprise analyst Senthuran Premakumar revealed that HDD ASPs across western Europe were up 58 per cent in April compared with the same month last year.

"[But] we are now seeing prices gradually on their way back down from the high [reached in] November", added Premakumar. "Going forward, we expect to see sales increasing further for both 1TB as well as other high-capacity drives."