Seagate Technology – The Biggest Contributor to the Growth of Computer Storage Industry.
Computer storage is an essential part of computer hardware and software. Over time, computer storage has gone through a tremendous change, and we have seen these devices grow in technology and size. Today a small chip can hold data over 500 GB or more. And this has happened due to some innovative companies running behind the technology and working towards innovation. Seagate Technology is one such example of companies, working in the field of computer storage that has been actively providing innovative products to the industry.
Seagate Technology Holdings initially founded as Shugart Technology is an American data storage company manufacturing and distributing computer storage devices. It was founded about 40 years ago and has been working in the field of computer storage as a leader. The company is credited for ‘sparking the personal computer revolution’ with its 5.25-inch hard drive for the PCs.
About Seagate Technology
Seagate is a result of a prediction of upcoming growth in the economic industry as microcomputers were becoming popular in the late 70s. The company, today, stands as the biggest supplier of the HDD market and competes with companies like Western Digital. Seagate has also added to its growth with some of its major acquisitions, including Conner Peripherals, Maxtor and Samsung’s HDD business.
Seagate has established its operational headquarters in California, US, and the legal domicile is in Dublin, Ireland. The company has seen rapid growth in its sales in the past twenty years. As per the 2020 records, the company made revenues worth US$10.51 billion, and over 42,000 people are working for it in the US and overseas.
Founding Seagate Technology
Finis Conner and Alan Shugart founded Seagate Technology on 1 November 1979 as Shugart Technology. It was Conner who thought of the idea to start a hard disk drive manufacturing company to take advantage of the upcoming economic boom. Later, Tom Mitchell, Doug Mahon and Syed Iftikar joined in to become the partners in the company. There was a company already existing with the name Shugart, so the founders had to change the name to Seagate Technology.
Seagate started as the manufacturers of hard disk drives for computers. In 1980, the company developed its first product, the 5-megabyte ST-506, the first 5.25-inch hard disk drive (HDD). Later, due to the huge popularity of the ST-506, Seagate also brought the 10-megabyte version of the same hard disk. Soon Seagate became the major supplier of the hard disk drives for microcomputers and bagged a contract for OEM for the IBM XT from IBM. IBM XT was the first personal computer that had a hard disk.
The Growth
By the early 80s, Seagate had got a hold on the 45% of the single-user hard drive market. At the beginning of the 90s, Seagate shifted its focus from external drives to mainframe drives, and it limited the outsourcing of components from other companies. Instead, it started to manufacture most of the components in its manufacturing units. During the same time, Seagate also introduced the industry’s first hard disk with a 7200-RPM spindle speed. The company was already trading on Nasdaq but moved to New York Stock Exchange in 1995.
In 1996, Seagate merged with Conner Peripheral, standing as the largest independent hard-drive manufacturer in the world. The same year, the company came with the first hard disk with a 10,000-RPM spindle speed in the industry, named Cheetah 4LP. Between 1997 and 2004, Seagate increased its production, supplying about 20 million drives per quarter.
In the year 2000, the company became a private company, but after a lot of restricting and relocation to the Cayman Islands, it became public in 2002. In 2003, Seagate started to manufacture hard disks for notebook computers as well as for the first iPods, smartphones and cameras. Seagate introduced the concept of hybrid drive in 2007, and the next year, it sold 1 billion HDDs.
In 2010, another restructuring for the company took place, and the company headquarter was moved to Cupertino, California. The company also changed the country of its incorporation to Ireland, with a name change to Seagate Technology plc. The same year, it brought the world’s first 3 TB hard drive. By 2012, the company value had raised to $14 billion and produced the first 1 TB/square inch density hard drive. The next year, Seagate was shipping the shingled magnetic recording drives, and in 2016, it demonstrated the 60 TB SSD, ‘largest ever.’
In 2020, the company’s operational headquarters was moved to Fremont, California. In May 2020, Seagate Technology Holdings plc became the parent company of Seagate, replacing Seagate Technology plc.
The Founder
Finis Conner is the founder of Seagate Technolgy. He was born on 28 July 1943 in Gadsden, Alabama. Because of his poor financial condition, Conner started to work at the age of 19 at IBM, and with time managed to get a degree in industrial management from San Jose State College in 1969. With his experience at IBM, Conner thought of the idea to build a company named Shugart Associates with Alan Shugart to manufacture floppy disks, becoming the pioneer in the industry. Later with Shugart, he founded Seagate Technology. Apart from that, Conner also founded Conner Peripherals, which later became a part of Seagate Technology.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.