6.3m PELS Devices Shipped in EMEA in 2Q14

Research from International Data Corporation (IDC) has found that the personal and entry-level storage (PELS) market in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) was down by 1.4% year over year with almost 6.3 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), according to the latest IDC Worldwide Personal and Entry Level Storage Tracker.

Shipment values decreased slightly along with unit shipments by 1.9% from a year ago to $511 million.

The PELS market includes storage hardware products embedding from one to twelve disk bays, manufactured and marketed for consumers, small offices/home offices (SOHO), and small businesses.

Major vendors tracked in this IDC report include Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, Buffalo Technology, D-Link, Netgear, and Lenovo/EMC (Iomega) among others.

Western Europe

The personal and entry level storage market in Western Europe grew 3.5% YoY in 2Q14, with 4.7 million units shipped during this period. Shipment value also increased 2.5% YoY 2Q14.

"The increase in both the entry-level and higher end of the personal storage market can be credited to improved customer consciousness of data storage and increased vendor offerings, but also to a positive lift from PC spending in SMB environments — up 3.5% in 2Q14 in Western Europe," said Jimena Sisa, senior research analyst with the IDC EMEA storage group. "We are seeing the increase coming mainly from personal level storage, which increased 3.5% YoY in unit shipments in 2Q14 in Western Europe. The increase came mainly from single-bay devices, as disk capacity continued to grow."

"Average selling prices that more closely align with personal storage than enterprise storage and features such as WiFi connectivity for mobile device access are keeping this product category relevant, despite the hype around cloud storage lockers," said Giorgio Nebuloni, research manager with IDC EMEA. "Hard disk vendors such as WD or Seagate continue to push in this space, but initial signs of renewed focus from enterprise players such as Lenovo point to interesting quarters ahead."

CEMA

The personal and entry level storage market in Central Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa (CEMA) accounted for the 13% YoY decline in units shipped and revenue.

The PELS market as well as the overall economic situation in the Central Eastern European region continues to be affected by the Ukrainian crisis and sanctions towards Russia.

Some of the minor contributing factors could be the slow adoption of personal storage devices due to the low number of people working remotely and the bandwidth capability of some countries in the region.

The Middle East and Africa alone recorded a 17% YoY drop during this second quarter, as the region was also destabilized by the difficult political situation and civil unrest in most countries.

The PELS market includes storage products and solutions with a single bay through twelve bay configurations that are manufactured and marketed for individuals, small offices/home offices, and small businesses.

IDC defines personal storage as having 1–2 bays and entry-level storage as having 3–12 bays. HDD vendors are suppliers that manufacture their own hard disk drives, in addition to branded external storage.

IDC defines a Mainstream non-HDD vendor as a major PELS vendor that does not manufacture its own hard disk drives.

Data for the PELS market is reported for calendar quarters. It includes vendor type, bays, capacity range, interface, and form factor.

EMEA PELS research covers 16 Western European countries, the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Rest of Central Eastern Europe, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the Rest of Middle East and Africa.