Western Digital. in the fourth calendar quarter has sold about 136 million drives . This is 4 million less than expected . But this allow WD to remain hard drives leader. Seagate company , by the way, in the fourth quarter will earn $ 100 million less than planned.
Looking ahead, WD hard drive estimates the market in 2013 with cautious optimism. In the first half HDD supply may be reduced slightly, compared with the second half 2012, but in the second half of 2013 can be expected a small increase in sales. In practice this will mean that we should not expect a reduction in retail prices for drives. Demand will slightly exceed supply, and manufacturers will be able to keep the profit margin at the level of 27-30% . Now the average sales price of WD is $ 62. Immediately after the flood, that figure jumped to $ 66, and a month before it was $ 51.
Speaking of numbers, in the fourth quarter WD sold 59.2 million drives (Seagate has said about 58 million disks). It should be noted that WD drives delivers several million under the agreement with Toshiba, which are not included in the figure (deliveries will continue until the full transfer of certain Toshiba factories ).
The company also does not set the precise timing of the delivery of hybrid drives 7-mm and 5-mm, and maintained silence on plans for the commercial supply of 7-mm HDD, filled with helium . It is expected that a small commercial lots of hybrid drives will reach customers in the second half of this year. The company currently distributes only engineering samples of promising new products for review.
Total revenue for the fourth quarter totaled $ 3.8 billion net profit for the period totaled $ 335 million year ago, the company earned $ 2 billion against $ 145 million in net profit. Doubling of revenue and profit was, firstly, due to the accession of Hitachi GST business, and secondly, due to the recovery after the Thai floods. At that time, we recall, WD managed to sell only 28.5 million hard drives. Recover after a year and keeping the first place in the market is worthy of respect.