Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues fell -1.4 percent year-over-year to nearly $5.9 billion during the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), according to research firm IDC.
For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disk storage systems market generated almost $7.8 billion in revenue. The modest 0.3 percent year-over-year increase was driven by strong internal storage sales within Asia-Pacific and emerging markets.
Total disk storage systems capacity shipped was 11.5 exabytes. Growth of new capacity consumption improved during the quarter, but the 23.9 percent year-over-year growth was still relatively low by historic comparisons.
“High-end storage sales fell for the fourth consecutive quarter in 2Q14,” said Eric Sheppard, research director for IDC Storage.
“The high-end decline was not as striking as last quarter but it was coupled with a drop in midrange sales, suggesting weak demand is spreading to other parts of the market. Bright spots within the global storage market include growth from entry level storage and increased sales within EMEA and Latin America.”
EMC was the largest supplier, but experienced a year-over-year share loss during the quarter. The company captured 30.1 percent of the external disk storage revenue during the quarter, which was down from 31.2 percent the year prior.
NetApp and IBM sales resulted in a statistical tie for second position with shares of 13.0 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively. This was down from 13.2 percent and 12.5 percent respectively from the same quarter last year.
HP gained share during the quarter, moving from 10.0 percent last year to 10.1 percent this year. Dell and Hitachi finished the quarter in a statistical tie for the fifth position with shares of 7.2 percent and 6.4 percent respectively.
The total open networked disk storage market (NAS combined with non-mainframe SAN) fell -1.2 percent year-over-year to $5.1 billion in revenue.
EMC maintained its leadership in the total open networked storage market with 32.9 percent revenue share, but lost share compared to the 34.1 percent the company generated in 2Q13. NetApp was the second largest supplier with 14.9 percent share, followed by IBM (11.2 percent) and HP (10.2 percent).