Hard-drive shipments go up; Seagate poised to dominate

The hard drive, like the PC, is supposed to be dead. Every day, it seems, some technology pundit looking for attention will declare that the day has dawned when flash memory will eclipse drives.

The data doesn't support it. Global drive shipments came to 101.7 million units in the first quarter, up 16.5 percent from the same period the year before, according to iSuppli. (It's down from the fourth quarter, but that's typical.).

Seagate retained the overall lead, and saw its market share rise from 27.9 percent to 29 percent with 29.4 million shipments. Maxtor, which Seagate bought, clocked in with 11.9 percent of the market. Once combined, that will give Seagate 41 percent of the total market. Western Digital was number two with 18.5 percent and Hitachi was number three with 14.4 percent.