“Apple executives are reported to be ‘more than a little mad’ Wednesday after published reports that a Toshiba hard drive manager officially confirmed a new 1.8-inch hard drive with a 60GB capacity would soon be in full production and that Apple had committed to buying the drive. The report clearly puts Apple in a difficult position to deny a new, higher-capacity iPod is coming and harks back to a similar screwup by graphics company ATI in 1999, which took a costly toll on its relationship with Apple CEO Steve Jobs,” ThinkSecret reports.
“‘Somebody [at Toshiba] opened their big mouth and either it was taken out of context or was ‘off-the-record’ or this person really did just confirm it all,’ said a hard drive industry analyst familiar with how technology companies work business relationships. ‘There is no good way to handle this now. Toshiba screwed up and it could have major consequences, depending on how upset Steve Jobs is.'”
Full article here.