Western Digital (WD), the world's largest storage and hard disk drive maker, has introduced a new product range that allows people to create their own cloud for personal data storage.
The new products aim to offset shrinking hard disk drive sales, which have become a global trend.
Margaret Koh, the South Asia sales director at Western Digital (SE Asia), said the launch aimed to capitalise on a new growth market.
Most households now own multiple mobile devices and computers, stimulating high demand for personal data storage, she said.
Called WD Red hard drives, the new products are network attached storage (NAS) boxes, enabling users to store and retrieve data anywhere with internet network connection.
A NAS unit is a computer connected to a network. Unlike PCs, its sole functions are to save and distribute files upon request for devices on its network. It allows a household with several devices to keep data in a central location and retrieve them anywhere through the internet.
The WD products come up with 1-terabyte and 750-gigabyte models at 3,590 and 2,990 baht, respectively.
The global research firm IDC forecasts global shipments of NAS boxes are expected to reach 10 million units this year before tripling that level by 2016.
In Thailand, Mrs Koh said the adoption of NAS is increasing significantly on par with the growth rate seen in Malaysia, driven by falling prices, now half those two years ago.
Western Digital also provided a line of hard disk drives to serve increasing use of NAS for small to medium-sized businesses and cloud-based data centre. Prices for the 2- and 4-terabyte NAS models are 5,190 and 9,990 baht, respectively.
The US company has three authorised distributors in Thailand: Synnex, Com7 and Eternal Asia of China.
Western Digital earlier announced to invest US$200 million to upgrade its manufacturing processes at the Thai operating unit over the next few years.
As of the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2013 ending in June, Western Digital had a 44.9% share in the global hard disk drive market.
Sixty percent of Western Digital's revenue came from original equipment manufacturing for personal computers.
Revenue from Asia including Australia and New Zealand accounted for 54% of Western Digital's global revenue, Mrs Koh said.