Western Digital (WD) acquired 46% of the global hard drive market at of the end of 2015, according to a report by IDC Research organisation, said senior director of the components division for South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa WD Khwaja Saif El-Din.
In an exclusive statement to Daily News Egypt, El-Din said the company believes that the Egyptian market has growth potential, especially in the governmental sector. The majority of the ministries and governmental authorities need to protect their information using new technologies and that requires depending on the company’s hard drives and developed applications.
The government direction to rely on cloud computing is a key factor in driving the growth of the company in the Egyptian market, owing to cloud computing requirements for hard drives with large capacities and creative applications to benefit from stored data through analysis.
El-Din disclosed that 50% of the data stored on hard drives globally is stored on WD drives. He said that the ‘Purple’ hard drive is the best-selling hard drive produced by the company in Egypt and the Middle East. This hard drive is convenient to store data, which is recorded through surveillance cameras and that allows the drives to spread.
The company is participating in implementing a number of governmental projects related to cloud computing and indirect data security solutions, through information technology and security companies which mainly rely on WD’s products.
In terms of the most prominent challenges that face the Egyptian market, he said that after the 25 January Revolution, sales of hard drives were reactivated in many specialised commercial centres and individuals. The company is currently working on launching awareness campaigns among consumers, cooperating with the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) to introduce them to the dangers of using second-hand hard drives regarding their data security.
The company acquired the SanDrive tender last year which was announced some days ago, by $16bn. WD targets to provide hard drives to smart phone users and consumers by providing flash memory and memory cards. Reports indicate that Secure Digital memory card (SD) sales will be the fastest growing over the coming years owing to the increase in smart phone users.
According to El-Din, the global reports indicate a decline in computer sales with averages of 15% to 20% annually. This will influence hard drive sales, therefore, the company is expanding its SD sales through the latest tender and providing hard drives with developed applications for cloud computing and data centre services.
He added that 1% of the company’s products are returned due to misuse. Egypt has been the country most likely to misuse a hard drive and the highest in returning them in 2011. However, the awareness campaigns launched by the company recently contributed in eliminating this phenomenon.
