Seagate, like many other manufacturers of consumer goods, has experienced a tough year economically.  Seagate runs on a fiscal year which just ended on July 3, 2009.  Seagate has had to downsize by laying off workers and restructuring the organization during the last fiscal year.  Although Seagate is working hard to improve their math, it is clear that there is a demand for digital storage products.  Seagate reported disk drive unit shipments of 163.8 million, revenue of $9.8 billion, and net loss of $3.1 billion. All this translates into net loss per share (stock) of $6.32.  Interestingly enough the losses seemed to be more related to acquisitions, Research and Development, and costs associated with restructuring.  Recent totals from the last quarter, combined with forecasted demands, suggest that the company could rebound in the next year.

Restructuring Headlines coming out of Seagate seem to reveal strategy.  Seagate is focusing on sales.  In particular sales outside of the United States.  Just over a month ago, Seagate announced the appointment of Mark Whitby as Vice President, Sales And Marketing (Europe, Middle East and Africa).  Then on July 28th 2009, Seagate made another announcement related to their re-organization.  The appointment of Mr. BanSeng Teh as the Vice President and Managing Director of Nippon Seagate. This means that Mr. Teh will assume responsibility for Seagate’s Japan operations. BanSeng Teh will maintain his existing responsibilities as the Vice President and Managing Director for the Asia Pacific Sales and Marketing Organization. BanSeng Teh has been with Seagate since 1992. Is this an important move for Seagate? Most likely since combined, Asia Pacific and Japan, account for 40% of Seagate's revenue.  Both promotions have been from within the company and centered around markets outside of the United States.
 
Like the United States government, the Chinese government is taking steps to offset adverse conditions  related to the global economic recession.  The Chinese have prioritized technology in their domestic stimulus plan.  Part of the stimulus plan is the "PCs to the Countryside".  The Chinese government-funded project aims to expand sales of household electrical appliances in China’s rural areas which account for a large segment of the population.  According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China had well over 727 million rural residents in 2008.  Through this program, rural inhabitants can purchase computers at prices 13 percent lower than citizens living in the cities.  Many of these computers are manufactured by Haier.  Haier has chosen the Seagate Barracuda® 7200.12 1TB hard drive to be incorporated into the PCs.

Portability is part of the focus at Seagate as well.  Hard Drive requirements have gone beyond a user's home or work PC.  When it comes to laptops in 2009, The Momentus series hard drives are on the Seagate menu..  
 
The current storage capacity range for the Momentus mobile line is 120gb through 500gb.  These hard drives use the SATA 3Gb interface to connect to your devices.  Seagate has designed a drop sensor, known as G-Force Protection, that reacts within three-tenths of a second.  The feature senses when the laptop is in a free-fall state, moves the heads off the platter and locks the heads in place.  The G-Force Protection feature is only available in specific versions of the Momentus series.

• Trade Federation Article: Computer Industry News July 2009, published July 2009
• Trade Federation Article: Computer Industry News June 2009, published June 2009
• Trade Federation Article: Direction Of The Computer Industry May 2009, published May 2009
• Domaille.tv Computer Blog 4/23/2009, 6/26/2009