While the hard disk drive (HDD) market recorded disk drive unit shipment growth of 17.1% in 2010, component manufacturers such as heads and suspensions grew 24.7%, according to The Information Network.

Shipments of recording heads used in HDD assembly production rose from 1,625 million units in 2009 to 2,026 million in 2010, said the Information Network. It forecasts that 2,371 million thin film heads will ship in 2011.

"Recording head shipments are based on the number of hard disk drives shipped and the number of heads per drive," noted Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network. "The number of heads per drive will increase from 2.35 in 2003 to 3.25 in 2014."

TDK, a supplier of heads, led the market with a 31.5% share in 2010, followed by Seagate with 26.3%, Western Digital (WD) 25.6% and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) 16.7%, according to The Information Network. In 2010, Seagate manufactured 88% of its 605 million heads sold with its HDDs. WD manufactured 97% of its 631 million heads sold, and HGST manufactured 82% of its 338 million heads sold with its HDDs.