Editing Linear Tape-Open (section)

=== LTO Sales ===
The presence of five certified media manufacturers and four certified mechanism manufacturers for a while produced a competitive market for LTO products. However, {{as of |2019 |lc=y}}, there are only two manufacturers developing media, Sony and Fuji, and only IBM is developing mechanisms.

[[File:Lto-media-shipments-2000-2023.png|thumb|left|LTO media shipments, 2000 - 2023]]
The LTO organization publishes annual media shipments measured in both units and compressed capacity. Media unit shipments peaked in 2008, at about 28 million.<ref name="report-CY17"/>  However, the 152.9 Exabytes of total compressed storage capacity shipped in 2023 is the highest ever reported.<ref>[https://www.lto.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/LTOUltrium_AnnualTapeReport.pdf LTO Annual Tape report, covering CY'23]</ref>

Public information on tape drive sales is not readily available. Unit shipment peaked at about 800,000 units in 2008, but have declined since then to about 400,000 units in 2010,<ref name="market strength"/> and to less than 250,000 by the end of 2018<ref name="spectralogic-evaluation"/>

Some reports have shown sales of tape systems have slowed but in terms of EB sold the sales of tape have grown over time. Tape drives tend to last several years in the typical systems.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lto.org/what-is-lto/ |website=LTO SIG |title=What is LTO tape technology? }}</ref>