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A Toshiba representative wouldn't discuss customer plans for the 1.8-inch drive, and Apple Computer declined to comment on the possibility of a boost to the music device, describing it as speculation.
However, Apple uses Toshiba drives in its higher-end iPods and has historically snapped up the latest models. Most recently, it added an 80GB version of its video iPod in September.
Products using the new drives are expected to be on sale in the first quarter of 2007, the Toshiba representative said.
The drives, like their predecessors, have two platters for stashing data and use perpendicular recording technology to increase the amount of data that can be stored in a given surface area. They spin at 4,200 revolutions per minute and can transfer 100 megabytes of data per second.
Moving from 80GB to 100GB would mean an iPod capacity increase from roughly 20,000 songs to 25,000 songs, going by Apple's standard measurements.
Just as Apple dominates the digital media player industry, Toshiba dominates the market for the hard drives those gadgets often use. According to research from industry analysts IDC, Toshiba had an 80 percent share of the market in the third quarter of 2006 and has shipped 40 million 1.8-inch drives since they were launched in 2000.
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Unlimited long distance $24.99/mo
bigger screen? I'm waiting to buy a new ipod, and wondering
what your thought are.
Thanks,
is going to put larger hard drives in the iPod? Wow!!! Who would
have ever guessed that one? This guy may be on to something...
Crazy speculation about new product updates and features is one
thing, but an article that states the blatently obvious? What editor
approved that?
The idea of the 1.8" 100Gb microdrive isn't just for the iPod! I would reckon that this idea could go towards the high-grade high-resolution digital cameras so that there is the ability to acquire more high-resolution movies and digital images.
Another application could be high-capacity secondary storage in PDAs, UMPCs and other "very small form factor" personal computers. This would suit those machines that are pitched as "laptop replacements" for example. To some extent, manufacturers could easily make very small USB external hard drives that road warriors use as a tool for "mirroring" their laptop computer's data.
With regards,
Simon Mackay
Looks like it all comes down to Apple for CNET.
As far as directing requests to c/net, what's going on in the digital tape arena? Is digital tape being replaced by small hard drives? We used to back up our data on a CDR in the 90's. In today's world, that would take several hundred CD's (today, they're treated like the floppy disk). What is going to be THE backup storage device for the home user of the future? Tape? Optical disk? Magnetic hard drive? How about a story, cnet?