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Fujitsu has developed a 100GB hard disk drive suitable for use in notebook computers and has begun mass production of the drive.

The Tokyo company began manufacturing the drive in late March and its entire initial output has been snapped up by notebook makers, says Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing at Fujitsu Computer Products of America. Now the company is beginning to accept orders from more notebook makers, and so is announcing development of the drive, he says.

"We launched in late March and early April with some major notebook makers," he says. "In June we are opening the doors up to other customers. Any notebook shipping with a 100GB hard disk has a Fujitsu drive."

Dell and Hewlett-Packard both offer a 100GB hard disk drive as an option to buyers of their notebook computers.

Other Players

Fujitsu's hard drive, the MHU2100AT, 4200 revolutions per minute rotational speed and comes with a parallel ATA interface, Hagberg says.

Several of Fujitsu's competitors have also announced development of 100GB drives and plan to ship them in the second half of this year.

Toshiba said in April it plans to ship a 4200 rpm drive in the third quarter. Last week, Seagate announced two 100GB 2.5-inch drives as part of a new line-up of products. Seagate plans to introduce a 5400 rpm drive during the third quarter and a 7200 rpm drive during the fourth quarter, according to the company.

Development of the higher capacity drives comes as the notebook computer share of the U.S. retail personal computer market continues to grow. For the week ending May 29, notebook sales accounted for 56 percent of the entire U.S. personal computer market, according to figures from Current Analysis.

That's the first time notebook sales have been higher than those for desktop PCs, says Sam Bhavnani, a senior analyst covering mobile computing at Current Analysis. Furthermore, the company expects notebook sales will surpass those of desktop PCs in the U.S. retail market for calendar year 2005.

Higher demand for the drives from notebook PC vendors and companies making consumer electronics devices has pushed drive makers to expand their production capacity.

Notebook Sales Jump

Fujitsu increased automation at its factory in Thailand to enable it to increase production and that in turn helped it grab a larger slice of the 2.5-inch drive market in the first quarter of this year as compared to the fourth quarter of last year, Hagberg says.

Fujitsu was the third largest manufacturer of 2.5-inch hard disk drives for the mobile market in the first quarter of this year, according to figures cited by Hagberg from market research company Gartner.

It had an 18.5-percent share of the 13.7 million drive market, behind Toshiba at 29.6 percent and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies at 44.7 percent, according to Gartner. That represents an increase in shipments of around 300,000 drives over the fourth quarter of 2003. Then, Fujitsu had a 15.0 percent share of a 14.7 million drive market, according to the figures.

Looking at the current quarter and ahead, Hagberg said the company has been hit by some softness in the market for 2.5-inch hard disk drives. Other hard-disk drive makers have also reported similar conditions which Hagberg said are down to oversupply and seasonal factors.

Fujitsu is planning to expand its market share in the coming months by concentrating on Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drives. The company claims to be the only company capable of supplying a 2.5-inch hard disk drive with a SATA interface at present and two notebook makers are currently looking at launching notebooks using the drive, said Hagberg.