“Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc. (HGST) is planning to at least double the capacity of its 1-inch Microdrive hard-disk drive within this year, the company said Tuesday as events ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) began in Las Vegas,” Martyn Williams reports for IDG News Service.
Williams reports, “At present Hitachi’s most capacious Microdrive can hold 4G bytes of data, but the new drives, due in the second half of this year, will be able to hold between 8G bytes and 10G bytes, said Bill Healy, senior vice president of product strategy and marketing at HGST.”
Williams reports, “In addition to offering more storage space, the drives will also occupy about 20 percent less volume than current models, said Healy. One of the biggest space savings will come from replacing the Compact Flash interface with a ZIF (zero insertion force) connector of the type favored by consumer electronics makers. Beyond offering more storage capacity in new generations of the products in which they are now used, the drives could also end up in other types of devices. At present, any device that has to have more than about 5G bytes of storage requires a larger 1.8-inch drive. The benefits of being able to use a smaller drive are obvious if you consider Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod and iPod Mini. The former uses a 1.8-inch drive, while the latter uses a 1-inch drive.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Hitachi to double Apple ‘iPod mini’ hard drive production – May 16, 2004
Hitachi to ramp up Apple iPod mini drive production ‘sooner than later’ – March 26, 2004
Perhaps we’ll start seeing segmented iPod minis with differing price points – similar to the approach Apple has enjoyed since the second generation iPod was introduced.
Wow, I am suprised you would post this MDN. You don’t want to get sued do you?
Interesting since reports say that Apple had to go to Segate for the
5 GB drive because Hitachi was having trouble supplying the 4GB. The fact that the drive would be imbedded rather then attached with a ribbon connector had been revealed by Hitachi earlier this year.
MDN are too smart to get sued. Note the question mark in the headline.
Plus, I often wonder if MDN isn’t part of Apple or supported by Apple anyway. The MDN Takes are a little too “right on,” too often, to not be very inside. I bet MDN knows exactly what the deals are with the $499 Mac, iPod flash, and other rumors. They just don’t show their cards until it’s Kosher.
If you read MDN between the lines, you’ll learn a lot.
There’s a difference between educated speculation and actually receiving leaked, confidential information. MDN has nothing to worry about.
Of course Apple is going to increase the hard drive size – common sense, not some hocus pocus Apple secret.
Crushing.
I know I will buy a 5 gig model to replace my current mini model mainly because I want the better battery.
Now I will have to buy 2 mini’s next year. One for the better battery life, and one for a real capacity increase.
There is no legal ground for a lawsuit when reporting about a story that Hitachi tells the press. Speculating that the drive could be used by Apple is what reporting is all about. There are a lot of people around this and other sites who are totally confused about what constitutes a possible illegal act and what is protected by the First Amendment. Those people need to go back to school or if they’re still in, pay attention.
I can’t wait for next Tuesday ’cause those kind of misguided posts are getting to be annoying to me and I bet some others.