Zettabytes!

A recent IDC report claims that:

• The world created 161 exabytes (1.6 x 10^20 bytes) of digital data in 2006
• By 2010, annual data output will reach one zettabyte (1 x 10^21 bytes)
• In 2006, there were one billion devices capable of capturing digital images

The 2003 Berkeley study estimated 5 exabytes were produced in 2002, and a 30% annual growth rate. Thus the IDC estimates are considerably higher. The reason is that IDC takes a much broader definition of "created", including digital cameras, local copies of data, etc.