Demand for computer hard drives has fallen, as consumers' pre-Christmas PC purchases hit manufacturer's profits in January.

Leading US hard drive manufacturer Seagate underlined the dip in demand today with the release of a warning concerning its first quarter profits.

According to the firm demand had noticeably dipped in the New Year, with the company citing customers drawing down on inventories bought in the December quarter and a drop in notebook sales as the key reasons.

Seagate says it now expects that the overall market for mobile disk drives will be around the 13 million mark, a scaled down forecast from earlier suggestions of 14 million units at the beginning of March.

Similarly, the firm has revised its figures for the total market for the desktop drive market. Seagate says its channel inventory had decreased by about 2 million, bringing inventory down to about four weeks.

Manufacturers across the disk drive market are reported to have scaled down inventories as a result of the exceptionally high demand in the December quarter.

Platinum is coated on hard disks to increase data storage capacity and improve access times.