According to information provided by iSuppli, hard disk drive manufacturer, Seagate maintained the number one spot as the company with most shipments in 2006. Seagate holds a market share of 34%, while in second place Western Digital Corporation has 20% and runner up Hitachi has 17%. They also supplied some interesting statistics related to the industry as a whole:

“The HDD industry in 2006 shipped 434.2 million hard drives, up 15.5% from 375.8 million in 2005. In the fourth quarter of 2006, 119.7 million HDDs were shipped, up 15.8% compared to the same period a year earlier and an 8.3% increase from the third quarter,” said the research firm. “What's impressive is these strong sales for HDD manufacturers came at a time when the industry was facing multiple challenges," said Krishna Chander, senior analyst for storage systems at iSuppli.

We have a lot to look forward to this year, especially with the increasing presence of hybrid and flash HDD.