Hitachi to anchor 2.5 inch hard drive leadership

Following a 36-percent quarter-over-quarter growth in unit shipment¹, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi) is today unfolding a 2007 product strategy intended to secure the company's position as segment and technology leader for 2.5-inch hard drives. With two new products offering capacities in excess of 200 gigabytes (GB) of storage and a sustained track record of technology leadership in this product segment, Hitachi is positioned to continue its undefeated 2.5-inch leadership record into 2007 and beyond.

The Hitachi Travelstar product line has maintained its position as the world's most popular 2.5-inch hard drive for nearly 15 years². Over the next several years, the opportunity in the 2.5-inch segment is expected to grow significantly, and Hitachi is preparing to capture that growth. By 2010, industry analyst firm IDC predicts 2.5-inch hard drive annual shipments will double to 224 million units from 118 million in 2006³. At that time, Hitachi believes the highest-capacity 2.5-inch product may be in the 750-GB range.

In the near term, the anchor element of the Hitachi 2007 2.5-inch plan is a new product that is expected to offer leadership performance and storage capacity in a 200-GB, 7200 RPM package, slated for availability in the first half of 2007. This combination of high capacity and high performance underscores Hitachi's established position as manufacturer of the most powerful 2.5-inch hard drive.

The second Travelstar product, a 5400 RPM hard drive, will offer storage capacity in the quarter-terabyte range and is expected in the second half of 2007. The new products will also provide hard-drive-level data encryption as a new feature for added security. In addition, Hitachi is offering a flash memory/hard drive hybrid option for enhanced battery life, greater performance and increased reliability.

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