The Average HDD is Now 590 GB in Capacity

A Seagate announced as part of its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report that the average hard drive shipped to customers now exceeds a size of half a terabyte.

The average size is about 590 GB, which is an increase of 39 percent year-over-year, Steve Luczo, Seagate's CEO said. Total industry demand for hard drive storage media climbed to an astounding 330,000 PB within the past year.

Seagate shipped 52 million hard drives with a combined capacity of more than 29,000 PB in the most recent quarter, while the output for the year reached 199 million units. Seagate reported revenue of $2.9 billion and net income of $119 million for the quarter.

WD slightly exceeded Samsung's shipments with about 54 million units during the quarter. WD reported revenue of $2.4 billion and a net income of about $193 million.