For about 5 years, I had a Quantum Pioneer SG 2.1GB HDD, which I had to give to someone as a replacement, and that beauty is still working great in a very old computer, somewhere. In the meantime, I added a Seagate drive to my computer. This one was a 8.4GB one, but after that, hell broke loose. I jumped straight to a 80GB one, after less than a year I got it replaced, because it died, then I got a 250GB one, then a new computer with a 320GB drive, and now, less than a year after the last purchase, I am thinking about a 1TB drive, and I can't say I am upgrading frequently...


All the above has a close connection with the latest news regarding the HDD market, because this is what happens everywhere - HDDs are so cheap, that it's a pity not to grab more and more storage as you move on, since any new drive gets full pretty soon, no matter how large it may be. I know, there are people who can still live their lives with a "tiny" 40GB or 80GB drive, but I'll leave them aside.

According to IDC, worldwide HDD shipments are expected to grow, despite the economic uncertainty faced by individuals and businesses all around the planet. Even more, disk storage systems shipments will continue to grow until 2012, IDC estimating a 53% yearly growth. Then, it's the end of the world, of course, so no additional forecast.(heh, just joking!)

John Rydning, research director for hard disk drives at IDC, said "Disk drive OEMs are very aware of the different competing storage technologies that exist today, and will exist in the future. They will rightly shrug-off these competing technologies for a later day, choosing instead to capitalize on the healthy and profitable opportunities that lie ahead in the hard disk drive industry."

I know SSDs may seem the way of the future for some, but it will surely take years until they manage to surpass HDDs in volume sales. The reasons are obvious, so it seems I won't be forced to move to SSDs anytime soon, as it happened with the AGP bus, for example.