Ending its perpetual encampment in second place, Western Digital Corp. in the first quarter of 2010 shipped the most Hard Disk Drives (HDD) of any storage supplier, surpassing arch nemesis Seagate Technology for the first time ever on a quarterly basis, according to iSuppli Corp.
Western Digital shipped a record 51.1 million HDDs during the period, up 3.2 percent from 49.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. In comparison, Seagate’s HDD shipments amounted to 50.3 million units in the first quarter of 2010, up 0.8 percent from 49.9 million during the previous quarter.
While Western Digital’s remarkable feat succeeded in finally ending the long-running perch at the top for its rival in terms of shipments, Seagate continued to lead on the revenue front at $3.1 billion, compared to Western Digital’s $2.64 billion, iSuppli data show.