One of the most important components of modern-day consumer electronic devices, such as PCs, laptops, notebooks, tablets, pen drives, cameras or iPods often goes unsung. This is because storage capacity is such an essential part of these devices that we practically forget to see it separately as a component. But this sub-market, if you will, has been evolving too, with manufacturers striving to come out with advanced storage devices to suit varying customer needs. The computing segment primarily consumes three kinds of storage: internal, external or network attached. Internal storage is generally a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD). An SSD refers to a semiconductor-based primary storage medium as opposed to magnetic media such as a hard drive. External storage devices, such as those attached through USB drives can be easily connected to any computing device to transport or share data between computers. Of course, there are some limitations to sharing in this way, since the device needs to be attached to the computer to enable data transfer or viewing. This is where network attached storage (NAS) enters the picture. Unlike an external hard drive, an NAS may be connected directly to a router or a hub and is therefore available to all computers within the network at any given time. Although storage is typically a much more stable market, the sluggish PC market could take a toll on it. The brunt of the softness is likely to be felt in the HDD category, which remains the primary storage component for computers. But distributors are not too worried, since historically, storage has proved to be the most resilient IT category in a constrained budget environment, much ahead of Software and Servers. At present, there appears to be no fear of oversupply, since channel inventories are pretty lean. However, given that demand remains extremely soft, there is unlikely to be any pricing support. Top IT distributors Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM - News), Arrow Electronics Inc. (NYSE: ARW - News) and Avnet Inc. (NYSE: AVT - News) appear to be banking on demand from the small and medium business (SMB) segment to boost PC sales in the current quarter.
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