"I/O to disk is now perceived to be a drag on overall system performance. Clearly, the smaller players (Hitachi and Samsung) have opted to position themselves to ride the next wave," he added.

The marketplace consolidation is good news on two fronts, according to Rydning and other industry experts.

For one, it means more stable HDD pricing in a market that is still competitive. And, it means a boost for the development of next-generation hard drive technology, which has the potential to produce 2.5-in mobile drives with more than 1TB of capacity.

"Some of the next-generation HDD technology is pretty complex and pretty expensive. If you had five players all chasing that, it means you've got five R&D centers, and you've got five sizeable capital investments," Rydning said.

Over the next year, Seagate and other vendors will be able to ramp up development of (HAMR) and technologies.