Custom cable demand could be driven forwards in the enterprise and personal computing segments by innovations from hard disk drive manufacturers. According to electronic components analyst iSuppli, solid-state disks have yet to make major inroads into the storage market, which remains dominated by HDDs. However, as SSDs continue to gain ground through new product launches like Microsoft’s Surface tablet system, HDD manufacturers may need to play to their strengths in terms of product innovation. That may mean focusing on the enterprise computing segment, where HDDs have found long-term support for many years, or in key personal computing markets like large-capacity external storage. In either case, manufacturers are likely to need custom cable solutions to satisfy the demands of enterprise customers with specific networking needs, or to provide consumer customers with external cables with more visual appeal than the standard internal HDD connectors used by OEMs. According to iSuppli, “with future demand for storage expected to increase, the appeal of large-capacity, economically priced HDDs cannot be underestimated”. However, it remains to be seen how well the long-term king of the storage media can keep its throne, in the face of SSDs’ tenacious battle for market share.