Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) Device Market

Market Overview

The Total Addressable Market (TAM) for Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) Device was valued at USD 15.4 million in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 288.77 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 38.50% during the forecast period (2023-2031). 

High-capacity data storage is more critical than ever because work-from-home environments today use more cloud services, video content, and image sharing. The amount of data that can be stored on a magnetic device like a hard disc drive is significantly increased by heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), a magnetic storage technique briefly heating the disc material while writing, making it noticeably more responsive to magnetic effects. The market for heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) devices is expanding due to the enormous expansion in digital data volumes, the demand for durable, high-capacity hard drives, and the rising popularity of smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Huge Increase in the Amount of Digital Data

Images and videos produced or consumed for entertainment, images and videos from practical applications like advertising and security, productivity-driven data like files on PCs and servers, system logs, and sizeable amounts of databases created by embedded devices, machine-to-machine, and IoT are just a few examples of the many different types of data-generating devices. More data is produced as more analog content is converted to digital, entertainment collections expand, and video and audio resolution keeps improving. There are currently too many datasets due to the recent rise in data-generating devices, including smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics, and numerous gadgets with sensors.

Furthermore, data is now essential to every aspect of human life since it affects and shapes how people interact with one another, businesses, and the rest of the world. Embedded systems & the Internet of Things (IoT), instantly accessible mobile and real-time data, cognitive artificial intelligence (AI) systems, increased security data requirements, and, most importantly, the transformation of data from a business background to a life-critical role are key trends that are expanding the role of data in a changing world. Consumers control everything via the cloud, and real-time data produced by linked devices are fueling the expansion of digital data volumes.

Market Restraint

Rising Adoption of SSD

The demand for SSDs has been rapidly increasing due to the proliferation of cloud platforms, including new public clouds, private clouds used by individuals at home, and traditional corporate private clouds. Significant data is stored on SSD in integrated circuits. This differentiation from HDDs has various ramifications, particularly in size and performance. SSDs do not require a spinning disc to shrink in size and form. On the other hand, SSDs offer exceptional performance with little latency and high frequency.

An SSD with these qualities is essential for many complex tasks in data-sensitive industries, such as financial services, medical sciences, and energy management, where each microsecond of latency results in a significant revenue loss. Technological advances have given rise to SSDs with novel interfaces. In addition, SSDs for cloud computing are growing in popularity due to new features, including fast speed and quick data access. Thus, the growing adoption of SSD is expected to restrict the growth of the global heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) device market during the forecast period.

Market Opportunities

Growing Need for Sturdy and High-Capacity Hard Drives

A hard disc drive (HDD) is a non-volatile storage and retrieval device on desktop and embedded platforms. A group of quickly rotating magnetic discs or platters make up a hard disc drive (HDD). Data is permanently stored on a secondary storage media, with random access memory (RAM) acting as the primary memory device. The need for electronic data storage expands along with the growth of data generation. But as digital commerce and internet-enabled gadgets proliferate—including cellphones, consumer goods, alarm monitoring systems, and home appliances—massive volumes of data are generated in the cloud. The need for data storage among companies, corporate data centers, and cloud service providers will not diminish. Data storage devices have been and will continue to be extensively used in computing, communication, consumer, and entertainment systems.

Additionally, the rise in storage needs has been spurred by the expansion of online shopping and information needs. Manufacturers of storage systems for the burgeoning Internet and commercial data storage businesses have made a fortune. Computer consumers are very interested in aspects like increased disc capacity, improved performance, and steadily falling prices per megabyte of storage. Due to capacity, performance, and cost improvements, magnetic HDDs play a substantial and enormously helpful role in every information processing system.

Regional Analysis

The global heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) device market is bifurcated into four regions, namely North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. 

North America Dominates the Global Market

North America is the most significant shareholder in the global heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) device market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 38.70% during the forecast period. The US is one of the fastest users of HAMR device technology because of the rising demand for computing across end-use applications, including business, media and entertainment, gaming, individuals, and data centers. However, because of their lower prices and increased data storage capabilities due to smaller grain sizes and reduced signal noise, HAMR-enabled hard drives are predicted to be widely used. Furthermore, the presence of hard drive manufacturers in the region is anticipated to increase the usage of HAMR-enabled devices. The Canadian government works to make all services, including passport renewal, tax filing, access to subsidies, and other such benefits, seamless for its residents.

Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a CAGR of 37.95% during the forecast period. China has one of the highest technological adoption rates among its peer nations in the Asia-Pacific. However, China's IT sector has expanded exponentially and has helped the economy there as a whole. In addition to other macro and microeconomic objectives, the country desires to be the global leader in innovation, technological advancement, and industrial hubs with affordable labor. However, it is anticipated that the usage of HAMR storage devices will expand due to the increased volume of data generation across business verticals over the forecast period.

Europe is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period. Large enterprises' IT managers are updating their core software systems and increasing IT spending to adopt IoT, AI, blockchain, etc., to boost productivity in routine business operations due to the government adopting a digital transformation strategy. As a result, the UK is the region's fastest adopter of heat-assisted magnetic recording devices. BFSI, retail and CPG, manufacturing, transportation, oil and gas, media and entertainment, education, IT and technology, and healthcare are undergoing rapid change. For instance, the first quarter of 2020 saw growth in the healthcare sector due to the breakout of a novel coronavirus. However, the data stored on servers used by businesses and data centers were considered when calculating the need for HAMR storage devices.

The Middle East and Africa are latecomers to technology and one of the world's most underserved markets for intelligent cloud services like AI, machine learning, blockchain, and IoT. Nevertheless, IDC forecasts a strong growth of over 24% annually due to the increase in data center spending across the Middle East and North Africa regions, which have had the fastest growth in cloud traffic in recent years. Additionally, tech behemoths like Microsoft, which debuted its first hyperscale data center in March 2019, have increased their spending. Such reforms are advancing the market and are anticipated to boost regional demand for HAMR over the forecast period.

Segmental Analysis

The global heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) device market is segmented by application.

By Application Analysis

Based on application, the global heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) device market is bifurcated into laptops/notebooks, servers, desktops, and others.

The server segment is the highest contributor to the market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36.90% during the forecast period. The amount of physical storage a server can hold depends on its hard discs, which come in different sizes. As an illustration, a 1U server has two internal hard drives, whereas 4U servers can hold more than a hundred. Furthermore, servers require hot-swappable hard drives or drives that can be replaced or removed from a server while it is still running. The cost per drive can be reduced by doubling the server's data storage capacity using HAMR storage technology without physically changing the size of the hard drives.

Laptop/notebook PCs are easy to transport because they are made to be small, strong, lightweight, and portable. Laptop hard drives are typically 2.5 inches in size and have data storage capacities ranging from 160 GB to more than 2 TB. With the HAMR technology, hard drive manufacturers may now provide HDD with higher data storage capabilities compared to the most recent storage technologies with exact physical dimensions. It stands to reason that future laptops and notebook PCs will likely have more storage space than current models.

Comparing desktop and laptop hard drives, the former can quickly read and write data. But desktop computers have stronger cooling systems, contributing to a smoother and more reliable computing experience. In terms of storage capacity, desktop hard drives take up more than 3.5 inches. Due to their reliability and affordability, desktop computers are frequently used by SMEs, major corporations, individuals, and organizations for personal computing, office tasks, gaming, and other computing-related activities. The adoption of HAMR devices by desktop users is anticipated to increase as their computational power and storage needs grow.

Recent Developments

• January 2022- Leading hard drive producer Seagate revealed that it began sending massive 22TB hard drives to some of its clients. The company extends the capacity of its most extensive drives by a few more terabytes using shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology.
• February 2022- Toshiba promised a 30TB hard drive by 2024. By implementing FC-MAMR, MAS-MAMR, and disk stacking technology, the firm hopes to increase HDD capacities to 30TB by        March 2024.