4 ms·

In the HDD market there are actually just two companies: WD and Seagate. There are other brands (Toshiba, HGST) but these are not completely independent (HGST i

by miahi 11y ago

In the HDD market there are actually just two companies: WD and Seagate. There are other brands (Toshiba, HGST) but these are not completely independent (HGST is owned by WD, Toshiba still exists mostly because WD feeds it with technology whenever they are threatened by anti-monopoly rulings, so they can say competition still exists). In the SSD market there are lots of brands, but only a few flash chip makers - so it's the same lack of competition but better hidden to the consumer.

wtallis 11y ago
For SSDs, there are four independent flash manufacturers, three of which are pretty big. They all have an in-house controller product line, and there are at least three major independent controller providers. It's a lot more competition than hard drives.
- justincormack 11y ago
  And the main reason the number of hard drive manufacturers is so low is that SSD is the competition and is winning for many use cases.
  - jimmcslim 11y ago
    Cloud storage providers must be sucking up a huge amount of HDD supply... I wonder if that is putting a floor under consumer HDD prices.
    - merb 11y ago
      That could be true, since the most cloud Providers don't use "enterprise" hdd's, they just buy stuff they tested.
  - awiangognggg 11y ago
    Nah, it was only really WS and Seagate even before SSDs came around at all.
currysausage 11y ago
> Toshiba still exists mostly because WD feeds it with technology whenever they are threatened by anti-monopoly rulings From what I have read, Toshiba's 2.5" consumer/enterprise and 3.5" enterprise HDD business was acquired from Fujitsu [1] and has nothing to do with WD/HGST. WD had to transfer some/all (reports diverge) HGST 3.5" consumer HDD assets to Toshiba on the insistence of the EU Commission. The Toshiba/HGST thing is a little opaque to me: HGST still sells a few DeskStar HDDs, notably DeskStar NAS, and newer Toshiba 3.5" consumer HDDs (MD-series 4TB+) look more like the enterprise HDDs that Toshiba has been selling for a while [2], not like the DT01ACA... models that were relabeled HGST DeskStar 7K3000 [3], although there are also pictures of the very same MD models that do look HGST-style [4]. Makes me unsure what to buy 3.5"-wise when I want the Hitachi reliability that I am used to (buying IBM/HGST for over a decade and never had a failure). Then again, maybe I'm just naive and Toshiba is more dependent on WD than I think. [1] http://www.cnet.com/news/toshiba-buys-fujitsu-hard-disk-drive-business/ http://www.cnet.com/news/toshiba-buys-fujitsu-hard-disk-driv... [2] https://www.alternate.de/p/o/a/Toshiba_PX3009E_1HP0_4_TB__Festplatte@@ahbt02.jpg https://www.alternate.de/p/o/a/Toshiba_PX3009E_1HP0_4_TB__Fe... [3] http://cdn1.goughlui.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_4989-e1361853965657.jpg http://cdn1.goughlui.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_4989... [4] http://www.toshiba.eu/hard-drives/internal-hard-drives/sata-hard-drive-desktop-md-series/px3009e-1hp0/ http://www.toshiba.eu/hard-drives/internal-hard-drives/sata-...
jotm 11y ago
Interestingly, Seagate also owns Samsung's HDD manufacturing business. Samsung is focusing on chips as the future of storage, and obviously, they're right...

by miahi 11y ago

wtallis 11y ago

For SSDs, there are four independent flash manufacturers, three of which are pretty big. They all have an in-house controller product line, and there are at least three major independent controller providers. It's a lot more competition than hard drives.

justincormack 11y ago
And the main reason the number of hard drive manufacturers is so low is that SSD is the competition and is winning for many use cases.
- jimmcslim 11y ago
  Cloud storage providers must be sucking up a huge amount of HDD supply... I wonder if that is putting a floor under consumer HDD prices.
  - merb 11y ago
    That could be true, since the most cloud Providers don't use "enterprise" hdd's, they just buy stuff they tested.
- awiangognggg 11y ago
  Nah, it was only really WS and Seagate even before SSDs came around at all.

currysausage 11y ago

> Toshiba still exists mostly because WD feeds it with technology whenever they are threatened by anti-monopoly rulings From what I have read, Toshiba's 2.5" consumer/enterprise and 3.5" enterprise HDD business was acquired from Fujitsu [1] and has nothing to do with WD/HGST. WD had to transfer some/all (reports diverge) HGST 3.5" consumer HDD assets to Toshiba on the insistence of the EU Commission. The Toshiba/HGST thing is a little opaque to me: HGST still sells a few DeskStar HDDs, notably DeskStar NAS, and newer Toshiba 3.5" consumer HDDs (MD-series 4TB+) look more like the enterprise HDDs that Toshiba has been selling for a while [2], not like the DT01ACA... models that were relabeled HGST DeskStar 7K3000 [3], although there are also pictures of the very same MD models that do look HGST-style [4]. Makes me unsure what to buy 3.5"-wise when I want the Hitachi reliability that I am used to (buying IBM/HGST for over a decade and never had a failure). Then again, maybe I'm just naive and Toshiba is more dependent on WD than I think. [1] http://www.cnet.com/news/toshiba-buys-fujitsu-hard-disk-drive-business/ http://www.cnet.com/news/toshiba-buys-fujitsu-hard-disk-driv... [2] https://www.alternate.de/p/o/a/Toshiba_PX3009E_1HP0_4_TB__Festplatte@@ahbt02.jpg https://www.alternate.de/p/o/a/Toshiba_PX3009E_1HP0_4_TB__Fe... [3] http://cdn1.goughlui.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_4989-e1361853965657.jpg http://cdn1.goughlui.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_4989... [4] http://www.toshiba.eu/hard-drives/internal-hard-drives/sata-hard-drive-desktop-md-series/px3009e-1hp0/ http://www.toshiba.eu/hard-drives/internal-hard-drives/sata-...

jotm 11y ago

Interestingly, Seagate also owns Samsung's HDD manufacturing business. Samsung is focusing on chips as the future of storage, and obviously, they're right...