Hard disk-drive use in video-surveillance to grow by 23% in 2013, says IHS

IHS estimates revenue for both internal and external HDDs in video-surveillance applications will rise from $638.7 million this year to $1.0 billion by 2017, a remarkable 57 percent increase. Growth this year alone is forecast to reach 23 percent from 2012 revenue of $521.1 million, and double-digit-percentage revenue expansion will ensue each year for the next four years. IHS finds the revenue figures translate to 7.3 million units in shipments by 2017, up from 2.4 million units in 2012 and a projected 3.5 million units this year. “The HDD industry as a whole will reap the benefits of a fast-growing video surveillance industry that requires ample storage, with the need for higher-quality video, network connectivity and cloud storage also driving the market,” said Fang Zhang, analyst for storage systems at IHS. “At present, internal HDDs that combine storage capacity with the recording system in one unit have a larger market than external HDDs in which the drive is separate. Shipments of HDDs for internal storage were higher than those for HDDs in external storage during 2012—a feat that will be replicated this year.” The other findings and suggestions from IHS includes: Products on the market today that use internal HDDs for video surveillance include internal direct attached storage (DAS), enterprise digital video recording (DVR), box appliance network video recor...