Maxtor OneTouch Leads Retail In the United States

Based on The NPD Group’s Data, Maxtor Maintained its Market Share Leadership for All Desktop, Direct-attached Storage Solutions Sold via Retail and Online Channels in the United States for the Second Consecutive Year


MILPITAS, Calif., March 27, 2006 – Storage innovator Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO) announced today that its Maxtor OneTouch™ family of products remains the leading brand of external storage sold in the United States, based on the latest data from The NPD Group, a leading consumer and retail information company. Based on the data, Maxtor ranked as the number one brand sold in the United States with 27.4 percent of all direct-attached storage purchases from consumers and small businesses via the retail and online channels that The NPD Group’s data monitored during 2005, a slight increase in Maxtor’s 27.2 percent market share, which led the external storage category in 2004.



“For years, we’ve kept our customers in mind when designing and building our simple, elegant storage solutions,” said Mike Williams, vice president and general manager of Maxtor’s Branded Products Group. “It’s gratifying to know that Maxtor’s unwavering dedication to innovation is noticed and appreciated. We’ve delivered the most intuitive, trusted storage and backup solutions to expand and protect people’s digital lives – and these products continue to lead the market.”



As the rise of digital content began to make an impact in the late 1990’s, Maxtor saw the market need for backing up consumer’s content quickly and easily. Maxtor was the first company to introduce the Maxtor OneTouch solution, the world’s first automated one-button backup external storage device. Continuing its market leadership, more recently, Maxtor was one of the first to deliver a shared network storage solution, the Maxtor Shared Storage™ Plus. In addition to providing automated backup for up to 20 Macs or PCs on home or office networks, the Maxtor Shared Storage Plus solution streams content—audio, video, or photos, for example—out to a variety of DLNA-compliant entertainment devices.



According to The NPD Group’s data, the overall market for direct-attached storage grew substantially from 2004 to 2005, with an overall increase of more than 1.3 million units sold in the United States year over year. “Our latest data indicates there’s been growing interest from consumers and small business owners in expanding and protecting their growing collections of music, photos and videos and documents,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis, The NPD Group.



The NPD Group data cited here is based on all direct-attached storage sales from retail and online distributor channels in the United States that the firm monitors. It includes all direct-attached storage units sold at every hard-drive capacity point and interface configuration, but it does not include any network-attached storage unit numbers.



For more information about the Maxtor OneTouch III family of products, please visit www.maxtor.com or www.maxtoronetouchiii.com.



About Maxtor



Maxtor Corporation (www.maxtor.com) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of hard disk drives and consumer storage solutions. The company has an expansive line of storage products for desktop computers, storage systems, high-performance Intel-based servers, and consumer electronics. Maxtor has a reputation as a proven market leader, built by consistently providing high-quality products, services and support for its customers. Maxtor and its products can be found at www.maxtor.com or by calling toll-free (800) 2-MAXTOR. Maxtor is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MXO.

Note: Maxtor and the Maxtor stylized logo are registered trademarks, and Maxtor OneTouch and Maxtor Shared Storage are a trademarks of Maxtor Corporation. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.



The Maxtor OneTouch is an element of a user’s overall backup solution and protection plan. For purposes of measuring disk drive storage capacity, one gigabyte (GB) represents one billion bytes.



This announcement relating to Maxtor may contain forward-looking statements concerning future technology, products incorporating that technology, and Maxtor’s execution. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could materially affect the company’s results, including, but not limited to, market demand for hard disk drives and network storage, integration of the company’s products with products produced by others, the company’s ability to execute future production ramps and utilize manufacturing assets efficiently, pricing, competition, and the significant uncertainty of market acceptance of new products and technologies, and the growth and implementation of home networking. These and other risk factors are contained in documents that the company files with the SEC, including the Form 10K for fiscal 2005. Maxtor is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any responsibility to update or alter, its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact Information

Erin Hartin

Maxtor Public Relations

Maxtor Corporation

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