DAT 160 - gaining market acceptance
June 2008

Since it was launched in June 2007, the sixth generation of DAT drive, DAT 160, has been gaining acceptance in the market with over 19,000± DAT 160 drives and more than 100,000† DAT 160 tape cartridges shipped by the end of Q1 2008. This impressive shipment ramp can be seen in Chart A below.

DAT 160 Tape Drives
According to IDC, in Q1'08 shipments of DAT 160 tape drives accounted for 8.2% of all DAT units shipped and more than 10% of revenue in Q1'08.

The analyst reports also confirm that in its first quarter following introduction, the DAT 160 accounted for almost 5% of overall DAT shipments. This is particularly remarkable when compared with the DAT 72, the most popular DAT product category to date, which only accounted for 2.75% of overall DAT shipments in its first quarter. The recent SCCG tape media report suggests that DAT 160 accounted for 8% of DAT revenue and 3% of volume in Q1'08.

DAT 160 Tape Media
DAT 160 media is experiencing a similarly impressive shipment ramp, with 55,000 cartridge tapes shipped in Q1 alone, and double the shipments of Q3'07 as illustrated in Chart B. Although still a relatively small percentage of overall DAT media shipments, these figures indicate that 6x DAT 160 cartridge tapes are purchased for every DAT 160 drive. This would provide further evidence of the continued popularity of tape for low-cost, high capacity data protection and archival.