In March, iSuppli released hard drive market share figures for the fourth quarter of 2009 which ranked Seagate as the industry's top drive manufacturer, selling 49.9 million units. At the time, Western Digital was right on Seagate's tail with 49.5 million units, but recent numbers suggest the Lake Forest, Calif.-based disk manufacturer has finally mustered up the might to trounce its longtime rival.
During the first quarter of 2010, Western Digital moved a record 51.1 million hard drives, and that 3.2% boost was enough to surpass Seagate's 50.3 million shipments and 0.8% sequential increase. Research outfit iSuppli believes Western Digital might lose revenue with its "low-cost model," but that approach will aid the company in its quest to gain more business and remain perched above Seagate.
Meanwhile, Hitachi clinched third place, growing 13.9% - the strongest among the top 5 HDD makers. Toshiba/Fujitsu and Samsung claimed the fourth and fifth spots, both selling less units than the previous quarter.