Maxtor talks about future trends in digital storage in the region

Maxtor also presented their latest range of high capacity, and advanced storage & backup solutions aimed at consumers and upcoming product launches planned for Q2 at their press conference held in Shangri-la, Dubai.

"We've experienced solid growth in the MEA region over the last year, with significant increase in demand for external storage and backup solutions," said Rajeev Mukul, GM, Maxtor, MEA. "This can be attributed to several factors, which include a wider distribution network with experienced retail & in-country partners in place, a strong marketing push with our partners for a wide range of external backup & storage solutions and the increased awareness this has created amongst consumers & SMBs identifying a real need to have in place reliable backup solutions to protect their valuable digital data."

According to Maxtor, the forecast growth for the hard drive industry in the MEA region is 18-20% in 2006. TAM for Hard Drives, (HDs) in the MEA was over 5 million units, which equates to 20% more than in 2004. Maxtor also predicts that the MEA market will experience a healthy 60% in terms of demand for external storage solutions and around 18-20% growth for SATA HDs. In 2005, Maxtor's share of the HD market in the MEA region is estimated at 43.85% & 67.5% for internal & external HDs respectively. Maxtor will continue its efforts in raising its market share across different markets in the region, particularly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & Egypt.

Maxtor's RMA Center based in Jebel Ali, Dubai has also been operating with great success and there are plans to add product testing capabilities in the near future.

In Q1, Maxtor MEA will be actively marketing (retail seminars, product training to partners, advertising & promotional material) their latest product innovation, the Maxtor OneTouch™ III external storage and backup solutions that are designed to make data backup and protection effortless. Maxtor OneTouch™ III external storage and backup solutions offer a range of features, capacities and performance for home users, creative professionals and business executives. The Maxtor OneTouch™ III family capacities range from 100GB to an amazing one terabyte (1,000 GB) and provide easy-to-use, automated backup and restore capabilities for PC and Mac users.

"Digital entertainment and data have become an integral part of our everyday lives, in social and professional environments, yet a lot of people still do not protect valuable files by backing them up," said Didier Trassaert, VP, Maxtor EMEA.

"At Maxtor, we strive to bring innovative solutions to market that make it simple to expand, share, and protect your digital life. Our new Maxtor OneTouch III family is designed from the inside out to be the easiest, most trustworthy way to back up and store photos, videos, games, music, business data and personal information."

The Maxtor OneTouch III solution, with a triple FireWire 800/FireWire 400/USB 2.0 interface, was selected as a CES 2006 Innovations Design and Engineering Honoree in the Computer Accessories category. It was chosen for its engineering qualities, the product's intended use/function, unique features, and aesthetic and design qualities, among other reasons.

Maxtor & Seagate jointly announced recently that they had entered into an agreement which will pave the way to Seagate acquiring Maxtor. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2006, subject to obtaining shareholder approvals and customary regulatory approvals. Until then, both Seagate & Maxtor will continue business as usual as two independent companies.

"We believe that this coming together of Seagate & Maxtor will provide our customers with even more advanced and diverse range of storage products that are affordable & innovative," said Trassaert.

This important recent development will have significant strategic and financial benefits, and the combined company will be better positioned to anticipate and serve the needs of the global customer base in the highly competitive data storage market.