The current state of the market has Western Digital in the lead with a 26TB Ultra SMR drive already available, but not yet deployed to end users, and a 28TB nearline model undergoing qualifying before its release.
This announcement also follows Western Digital’s announcement earlier about separating their Hard Drive and SSD businesses. This way the two businesses will be listed separately, and there is also a general belief that the Hard Drive business is holding back the SSD one and this separation will allow both businesses to grow at their own pace.
