Jimmy Hsu and Jessie Shen for DigiTimes.com have conducted an interview with vice president and general manager for the Asia-Pacific region, Pete Andreyev, about future prospects for the hard disc drive (HDD) market:
Q: With such a variety of portable devices, which product will become a boon to the slim-type HDD market?
A: Based on individual product penetration rates, MP3 players should offer a real growth potential, starting from the second half of this year. Market applications in the smartphone and digital video system markets will likely take over the mainstream spot in 2005. Total slim-type drive shipments will benefit from surging MP3 players worldwide, supported by international vendors, including Apple Computer…
Q: Which product will become the largest contributor to the slim-type HDD market?
A: In the next one or two years, slim-type drives will be embedded into products needing high capacity storage. Currently the drives are specifically designed for CF Type II slots, but we are in the process of developing a built-in slim-type HDD, in order to lower production costs. We plan to unveil a 6GB slim-type drive, up 50% from the current largest capacity of 4GB, in the fourth quarter this year.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 6GB Apple iPod mini, anyone?
[Attribution: MacNN.com]