Hitachi Readies 100GB Notebook Drives
Higher-capacity hard drives will be available by the end of the year.
Paul Kallender, IDG News Service
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies will make available 2.5-inch hard drives with capacities up to 100GB for notebook computers by the end of 2004, the company said this week.
The Travelstar 5K100 and E5K100 hard drives spin at 5400 rpm (revolutions per minute) and are available in 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, and 100 GB capacities. They are .4 inches in height, and consume relatively little power, the company says in an announcement.
Both the 5K100 and E5K100 offer parallel ATA and serial ATA (SATA) support, the company says. All the models will be shipping to customers in the fourth quarter of this year.
In the U.S., the 5K100 will be on sale at a suggested price of $126 for the 40GB version, $170 for the 60GB version, $222 for the 80GB version, and $263 for the 100GB version, Tadashi Hisanaga, a spokesperson for Hitachi, said this week. Hisanaga declined comment on customers for the products.
Supply and Demand
Hitachi is aiming more of its small-diameter hard disc production at consumer electronics applications and believes that increasing numbers of consumers who are considering buying notebook computers want to have more than 40GB of storage.
The company believes the consumer electronics portion of the market was about 10 percent in 2004. The company expects this share to grow to about 15 percent in 2003 and to grow to about half the entire hard-disk market in 2007.
In May, Hitachi said it was doubling to 60 million units the annual production of its 1-inch Microdrive, 2.5-inch Travelstar, and 3.5-inch Deskstar product lines and was investing $200 million to upgrade its factory in Thailand, where these drives are made.
