 "Global PELS Mkt Sees 10.7% Growth YoY In 2Q13")
The worldwide personal and entry-level storage (PELS) market grew 10.7 percent year over year with 16.8 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2013 (2Q13), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Personal and Entry Level Storage Tracker. Shipment value experienced growth of 7.3 percent year over year to $1.5 billion. This is the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in worldwide shipment value.
“The second quarter of 2013 brought continued shipment and revenue growth, as well as a return to normal for the personal and entry-level storage market,” said Liz Conner, Senior Research Analyst, Storage Systems. “For the last four quarters, the PELS market has seen a distinct focus on recovery after the Thailand floods and resulting hard disk drive (HDD) shortage. The second quarter brought back a sense of ‘business as usual’ with vendors starting to shift their focus from recovery to the future, with added investments in Personal Cloud Storage, mobile device connectivity, emerging markets, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt.”
HDD vendors continue to increase share in PELS units shipped, gaining 4.6 points year over year to grow to 73.6 percent market share. However the entry-level storage market continues to be dominated by the mainstream non-HDD vendors with 72.1 percent unit shipment market share, down 5.7 point year over year.
Market Highlights
The entry-level storage market continued to grow with unit shipments growing 3.2 percent year over year. Specifically, the entry-level market saw strong growth in the higher bay devices (6, 8, and 12 bays), which saw units shipped grow 23.4 percent year over year.
In 2Q13 the personal storage market saw good growth in dual-bay products, where unit shipments were up 17.6 percent year over year. Single bay personal storage devices remain the most popular choice, representing 97.0 percent of the personal storage units shipped in 2Q13.
Personal storage represents 98.9 percent of the PELS units shipped and 87.9 percent of the shipment value in 2Q13.
Technology Highlights
Form Factor – The 3.5" and 2.5" form factors each saw units shipped increase 2.7 percent and 13.4 percent year over year, respectively. However the 3.5" form factor continues to give way to the more portable 2.5" form factor, with 3.5" losing 1.8 percentage points year over year.
Capacity Range – End users continue to migrate to higher capacity points to meet storage needs. In the 3.5" personal storage market, 2 terabyte (TB) devices represented 51.9 percent of unit shipments in the quarter. For the 2.5" personal storage market, 1TB devices captured 51.7 percent market share. For the entry-level market, capacity ranges are more varied due to multiple bays and vendors’ ability to partially populate devices. However 4TB devices hold the most market share with 28.6 percent of units shipped.
Interface – USB continues to be the interface of choice for the PELS market, growing units shipped 11.5 percent year over year. Ethernet also saw strong shipment growth, posting a 10.2 percent year over year growth rate and being the interface of choice for the entry-level market. Thunderbolt continues to ramp up, posting a year-over-year shipment growth rate of 411.7 percent, albeit off a very small base.
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