Seagate has announced revenues of US$2.63 billion for the third quarter of 2017, up from US$2.41 billion a quarter earlier, and some market watchers expect the company's fourth-quarter performance to stay flat sequentially.

The company's gross margin also grew from second quarter's 27.7% to 28% in the third quarter, while net profits went up from US$114 million to US$181 million during the same period.

The company's hard disk drive (HDD) business contributed US$2.39 billion in the third-quarter revenues, up from the second quarter's US$2.22 billion mainly thanks to demand for clients' new notebook products. Meanwhile, flash memory-related products accounted for US$242 million.

ODM/OEM clients are still the major sources of income for Seagate, accounting for 67% of the company's revenues in the third quarter, while revenues from retail and distribution channels accounted for the remaining 33%.

Although Seagate only has a small portion of solid state drive (SSD) shipments, rising flash memory prices are expected to bring pressure to Seagate's SSD business profits if the company does not properly raise its end-product prices to reflect increasing costs, according to industry sources, who also added that its HDD business is also facing increasing demand from clients for price cuts.