Though it holds all the sex appeal of a frying pan, a terabyte may very well be the most romantic gift you could present to your dearest one this year, a year when many American consumers have finally reached the capacity limits of their home computer hard drives.
Anyone who’s experienced that come-to-Jesus moment when it looks like the old laptop is finally crashing will treasure those 1,000 gigs of back-up memory as a safe resting place for the irreplaceable images and videos they’ve spent years creating and collecting, bit by digital bit.
According to Microsoft market research, the average household has accumulated at least 1,383 photos, 1,364 songs, 1,000 documents and 242 videos, all in digital file formats. Is it any wonder that external storage solutions are proving themselves to be a nearly recession-proof category, with demand growing even in the sluggish first quarter of ‘09?
“I think in spite of the recession, people have increased their awarenesss of their need to back up everything,” says Lisa Walker, president of I3A, the International Image Industry Association. “There’s been a significant change in the last year.”
Why have Americans suddenly got religion on the necessity of storage and archival solutions? And how can specialty imaging retailers take advantage of this growing awareness? Manufacturers and retailers across the nation have a number of ideas about the new demand and how to most profitably satisfy it.
“What’s really the big driver right now is video,” says Scott Rader, senior product marketing manager at Western Digital. “People are collecting large files now, especially since the Flip (www.theflip.com) and even point-and-shoot cameras can capture video in high definition...their PCs don’t have large enough drives for all of it.”
Recession behavior seems to be adding to the demand.
“People are staying at home more, and they’re looking for something to do,” says Randy Queen, president of Verbatim Americas, a removable storage and accessory company, who says storage solutions are also strong because a nation of re-inspired photographers and new video producer/editors are very hesitant to spend a lot of money right now on expensive new laptops with large memory capacities. “We’re hoping that the netbook phenomenon keeps moving forward. It provides an opportunity for us and it’s one of the reasons this category is a growing need.”
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