Four leading hard drive makers have formed the Storage Products Association to represent and promote the $37B sector as the Big Data and mobile communications era places a greater emphasis on cloud computing and so-called flash memory use expands.
Seagate, Toshiba, HGST and WD (Western Digital) are founding members who launched the trade group at the 2013 Flash Memory Summit Aug. 13 in Santa Clara, Calif.
San Francisco-based L&M Management will run the organization while tech firm PR Works, Scottsdale, Ariz.. is guiding PR.
Jeff Burke, treasurer of SPA and VP of strategic marketing and research at Seagate, said the group will promote the industry's solutions and technologies, as well as educate consumers. "We are pleased to join SPA as we view the association as an excellent forum for educating the public at large," he said.
Hard drive makers chalked up $37B in revenue last year producing more than 578M drives. The rise of flash drives, which don't incorporate a spinning disc but are more expensive, could cut into that market.
The quartet said the new group's immediate focus is promoting hard disk drives and solid-state hybrid drives, or SSHDs, but suggested the scope could be expanded down the road to include other memory like flash and SSD.
The SPA is incorporated as a non-profit in California.
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