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The global rise in digital devices and the associated hunger for data is triggering a tremendous boom in the storage media market. The market, however, has changed in recent years. While VHS, music cassettes and diskettes still dominated the market just a decade ago, GfK reports that External Hard drives,USB drives and Memory Cards are now the front-runners. Verbatim have recently expanded their penetration in the flash business within the main retailers i.e. the new & trendy blue retractable USB model is now available in Carrefour UAE in capacities 8 & 16 Gb @ 127 & 254 AED respectively together with the swivel & compact USB key 2,4 & 8 Gb @ 40, 74,124 AED respectively. In Lulu, CompuMe, Emax, HyperPanda & ADCOOPS, Verbatim have now listed 2 & 4 retractable USB keys @ 43 & 77 AED respectively.
 
According to the manufacturer Verbatim, GfK anticipates a total volume of over 14 million 2.5" and 3.5" external hard drives sold in Western Europe in 2008. “For Verbatim, this development represents significant potential for growth,” says Ziad Arab, Sales Manager, Verbatim Middle East. “Consequently, our product portfolio offers a diverse range of storage media. With these products, we will be building upon our strong market position. At the same time we are offering our business partners the opportunity to harness the market’s growth potential by relying on a strong brand offering premium products at fair prices.” With the takeover of the hard disk business division of Smartdisk, a leading player on the American market last June, Verbatim has aligned its strategy clearly with the external hard drives market. In autumn, the company unveiled its first hard drive range in 2.5" and 3.5" format. A completely new range in a new, slimline design has been available on the market since April. “We now have the ideal essentials in terms of product quality and expertise for External Hard drives. Combined with our sleek design, we will set the course on the HDD market in 2008. International test successes shortly after the product launch confirm the premium quality of our products,” says Ziad Arab.
 
Massive growth is also evident on the USB Flash drive market, with over 40 million units being sold in Western Europe in 2007. On the heavily-fragmented market, many competitors vie for customer preference, with only a few brands reaching a market share of more than 10 per cent. As compared to 2006, Verbatim has significantly increased its market share in the USB storage sector. “In Europe, we have a market share of just under 5 per cent, which puts us among the front-runners. Here too, the company sees further tremendous opportunities for growth and in April we have launched a completely new range of USB drives onto the market that are targeted at different groups with varying specifications, capacities and prices. “We are convinced that our market share in 2008 will increase with the new USB drive generation,” explains Ziad Arab.
 
Verbatim also believes that the booming Flash Memory card market also harbours major opportunities. The company has expanded its portfolio of Flash Memory cards. The new, high-performance Compact Flash and SD HC Flash cards are geared towards professional users and are available with a storage capacity of up to 16 GB. With its new generation of cards, Verbatim is launching an offensive to address the globally rising demand for memory cards with large capacities and short transfer times for all types of applications.
 
“As the figures published by the Santa Clara Consulting Group (SCCG) confirm, we have further expanded our European market leadership in the field of optical storage media significantly and recorded gains in all product sectors in 2007. It is now important to recognise the sign of the times and position our company on the rapidly-growing Flash and external hard drive markets. To this end, we offer our business partners a broad variety of high-quality products, outstanding customer support and excellent deliverability through our Jebel Ali Warehouse,” explains Ziad Arab.

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