Seagate reporting a 44% rise in profits for this quarterNormally I wouldn't post anything about the banal business world and how much of profit rise or decrease some company had, but this time this piece of news struck my eye. Seagate Technology, which I'm sure most of you know of, has posted a profit rise of 44% for the first quarter of 2005. That is enormous.
I mean, usually you see a delta of 5-10% from what I've noticed (I could be wrong, no flames). Sales don't tend to change much from quarter to quarter, unless there is some whiz-bang new technology/product or huge change in market trend. Seagate executives have something interesting to say about this profit rise:
Seagate is benefiting from the broad introduction by cable television operators of set-top boxes with recording capabilities, portable digital music players, and from companies expanding their networks' storage capacity in light of new regulatory requirements, Seagate executives said on a conference call.
"Set-top boxes are just hot right now, whether it's a PVR or satellite or cable boxes," said Seagate CEO Bill Watkins in an interview, referring to personal video recorders. "And we're seeing lots of different companies wanting to take a hard drive and put an application on top of it."
I can understand why Seagate has benefitted from this. Whether or not it's true, Seagate has a reputation for making the most reliable and quiet of hard drives, compared to their direct competitors. Using a sturdy, non-noisy hard drive makes sense if you are going to be using it in a device that isn't exactly consumer-upgradeable, and designed to be plugged in and used indefinitely.
Good job, Seagate.
Article Link: Seagate Profit Up 44 Percent
Seagate Intros 100GB, 120GB Momentus Drives (2005-04-20)