Western Digital expands mobile storage solutions in India

Cashing in on the burgeoning smartphone sales in India, US-based Western Digital Corporation (WDC), a global storage technology and solutions leader, aims to expand its mobile storage solutions in India.

Talking to DH, Country Manager of SanDisk India and SAARC Retail Sales and Marketing, Western Digital Corporation, Rajesh Gupta said, “India is the world’s second largest smartphone market after the US. The largest proportion of our business comes from mobile solutions, followed by the USB drive which is the PC category, and then digital camera business, which is relatively small in India. And finally, the imaging products category.”

The India Consumer Storage Flash Memory market comprising Micro SD cards, SD cards and Flash drives witnessed 13% sequential growth in Q1 CY2016, in terms of units shipped. This was revealed in CMR’s India Quarterly Consumer Storage Flash Memory Market Review, Q1 CY 2016.

Market leader

In the overall India Consumer Storage Flash Memory market, SanDisk was the most favoured vendor with 30% market share in terms of units shipped in Q1 CY 2016. Samsung maintained the number two spot.

Recently, WDC has launched an upgraded line-up of SanDisk Mobile Memory Solutions (MMS) suite. This includes the new 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card and the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive m3.0.
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Digital India

WDC sees big opportunity in the government’s new initiatives like digital India and e-governance, among others.

Gupta said, “Any solution that touches mobility has a huge opportunity. Not only from a business perspective but from a solution perspective. Today, almost everybody has some kind of a phone which means businesses and the government can connect with you. Just imagine the possibilities that are there.”

“For businesses like ours whose interest is in storage, if e-governance and businesses are going to be transacted, banking is to be transacted through a mobile channel, and then storage will come into prominence. All kinds of storages are required. That is why we are investing in all possible distribution chains. We are trying to reach every nook and corner so that consumers have an access to the products,” Gupta added.

SanDisk, an American manufacturer of flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, and solid state drives entered India in 2006 as a large retail team. It was acquired by WDC in 2016. Globally, SanDisk has three R&D centres including one in Bengaluru, the US, and Israel. SanDisk has manufacturing facilities in China and Malaysia.

Gupta said, “We have 600 full-time engineers working on different kinds of products – memory technology, products like Connect and iXpand. Significant parts of these products have been designed and developed in Bengaluru.”