Hitachi Invests for Hard Drive Marketing and Technical Support in India
Tues 27 Nov, 2007

NEW DELHI, India, November 26, 2007 – Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), a worldwide leader in the hard disk drive industry, today announced it will enhance marketing and technical support in India as part of the company’s plans to increase its market share in the country’s high growth hard disk drive market. Currently, supporting service is provided by Hitachi GST’s authorized distribution partners, Cyberstar Infocom, Neoteric Infomatique and Redington.

“We felt the need to be close to our worldwide and local OEM customers, who are boosting their manufacturing operations in India. This initiative will provide more comprehensive support to the channel, which plays a key role in the dissemination and usage of our high quality hard drives in various applications right across the country,” said Robert Chu, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Hitachi GST.

The hard disk drive market in India has grown rapidly, with a CAGR of 19% in the last four years.¹ - Projections are for the market to grow at the same level in the future, especially with a burgeoning desktop and notebook market in India. According to IDC, the Indian desktop market grew by nearly 11% in volume and reached 4.5 million in unit shipments during the last fiscal year, while the Indian notebook market grew over 88% in volume to reach 1.1 million in unit shipments.

Apart from the desktop and notebook category, Hitachi GST also sees a huge market in Consumer Electronic (CE) applications such as Digital Set Top Box, Digital Video Recorders, Personal Video Recorders, as these are also giving rise to demand for high-capacity hard drives across form factors. To capture this market opportunity, Hitachi GST was the first to break the 1TB barrier in magnetic storage with the launch of the Deskstar 7K1000 family. And the CinemaStar family of drives has been launched to address the growing demand in the CE segment, with capacity of up to 1TB.

“India is a highly important market for Hitachi GST and we see immense potential for growth in the traditional IT and emerging non-IT segments. The enhanced marketing and technical support program is a strategic step to help us get closer to the market and enhance our go-to-market capabilities. Overall, this will help us consolidate our position in the market and accentuate the existing growth momentum,” added Robert Chu.

In a related announcement, Hitachi GST also announced today that Karthik Laxman will be promoted to Country Manager of India and SAARC region. Laxman will be primarily responsible for growth in the market as well as enhancing the company’s channel and OEM alliances in India. The announcement is part of Hitachi GST’s global strategy to strengthen its capabilities within one of the world’s fastest growing hard disk drive markets.

¹ Hitachi GST data

About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies develops advanced hard disk drives to store and preserve the world’s valued data. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, Hitachi GST enables users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing high-value, high-capacity storage in formats suitable for the office, in the home or on the road. With vertically-integrated research, design and manufacturing capabilities, Hitachi GST delivers leadership technology and quality to its global customer-base.

With approximately 33,000 employees worldwide, Hitachi GST offers a comprehensive range of hard drive products for desktop computers, high-performance storage systems and servers, notebooks and consumer devices. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachigst.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT/TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 384,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2006 (ended March 31, 2007) consolidated revenues totaled 10,247 billion yen ($86.8 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.