What does it mean if a hard drive is only a little bigger than a coin?

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies's two newly launched miniature hard drives will mark the company's entry into the market of high-capacity smart phones, and part of the production will likely be transferred to China in the future, disclosed Bill Healy, a senior vice president of Hitachi Global in a recent exclusive interview with First Finance Daily.

It is learned that the new product is nearly 20-percent smaller and consumes 40 percent less electric power than its predecessor. It will go into batch production in the coming October. Bill Healy believes that the new product will bring a new revolution to the design and market of high-capacity smart phones and multi-function audio/video players.

Before this, Hitachi set up a design center in Shenzhen in August, assisting OEM (original equipment manufacturers) to install the hard drives into various consumer electronic devices. Bill Healy disclosed that Hitachi has started cooperation with internationally well-known handheld phone manufacturers, and its smart handheld phone products will be available in December of this year. More staff will be transferred from Japan if the Shenzhen design center is shorthanded.

It is introduced that concurrently Hitachi's miniature hard drives are mainly produced in the factories in Thailand and Philippines. If there is rapid expansion for market demand and the factories in the two countries have to run in full capacity, then part of the production will be shifted to the Shenzhen factory.

Bill Healy remarked that their hard drive assembly plant in Shenzhen will go into production next quarter, and 3.5-inch hard drives will be produced first of all. With adjustment of the production lines possible at any time, the Shenzhen plant will be one of the few facilities that can turn out full Hitachi hard drive line.

"It is expected that by 2007, the global sales of mobile phones will reach 700 million. If 10 per cent of them are smart phones, the sales volume will be 70 million'', said Bill Healy.

"The share of Hitachi hard drives is ranked the third on the global market and the turnover the second, which shows that the unit price for our products is a little higher. After the Shenzhen factory goes into production, the situation will be changed'', said Bill Healy. According to Bill Healy, 2.5-inch hard drives will replace the desktop computer hard drive in the end, and the 3.5-inch hard drives, the traditional desktop ones, will be applied to high-end monitors and storage systems.

By People's Daily Online