Seagate is celebrating a milestone today as they claim to be the first hard drive manufacturer to ship two billion units worldwide. Perhaps more impressive, however, is the fact that it took 29 years to sell the first billion and just four years to sell the second billion according to a press release posted on Segate's website.

The company said recent sales have been fueled by the demand for storage from mobile apps, cloud infrastructures, social media, business applications and a wide variety of consumer markets. Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate said the achievement is a testament to the commitment of his employees whose relentless dedication and personal pride continue to be the fabric of the company.

Looking forward, Seagate believes that user generated content like HD video and still photos will quadruple storage needs by 2015. Seagate estimates that shipments will reach 585 million units in 2013 and further noted that terabyte shipments worldwide will grow at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate through 2016.

I can remember a time when a 20GB hard drive was a massive amount of storage but of course that was before most people were creating their own digital media. Furthermore, mission critical software like the operating system consumed far less space than they used to. Even just a few short years ago, a 1TB drive seemed like complete overkill yet now many new computers ship with drives of this capacity.