Seagate Ships 6GB 1-Inch Hard Drive, Highest Capacity in the Industry

February 24, 2005

Seagate, the world's leading maker of consumer electronics hard drives, announced today it is shipping the industry's highest capacity 1-inch hard drive, a new 6GB model of its popular 1-inch ST1 Series hard drive for handheld applications. Seagate began shipping this industry-leading 6GB drive in December 2004. The 6GB Seagate ST1 Series can hold up to 150 hours - or 3,000 songs - of high-quality music files (128 kbps), providing breakthrough value and storage capacity for small music players, PDAs and handheld entertainment devices. Consumers can now keep larger-than-ever libraries of music, video and digital photos in their pockets. Since it was first introduced in June 2004, the Seagate ST1 Series hard drive family has been used in the leading handheld music players and adopted by more entertainment device makers than any other 1-inch hard drive - including Creative, Olympus, Rio, Sanyo, Virgin and others - further confirming Seagate's status as the number-one choice in consumer electronics hard drives.

Now shipping to select OEM customers in 6GB capacity, and also available in 5GB and 2.5GB, Seagate ST1 Series hard drives also deliver important and unique features for handheld applications. Seagate's exclusive RunOn Technology ensures consistent music playback while in a high-motion environment, such as jogging - the drive actually senses and compensates for motion to stay on track. And Seagate's G-Force Protection technology protects the drive against shock from mishandling, increasing the robustness of the devices into which it's integrated.

"Consumer electronics suppliers demand that drive suppliers meet specific capacity, reliability, and technology requirements," said Dave Reinsel, IDC program director for Storage Research. "Seagate's launch of its next-generation ST1 Series 1-inch hard drive only six months after entering the handheld storage market demonstrates the company's ability to leverage its technology prowess to serve a divergent, expanding consumer electronics market."

Consumer demand for higher-capacity storage in handheld devices continues to grow, according to In-Stat/MDR, a leading digital communications research organization. "Consumers are aware that storage is something they need to consider when they make a consumer electronics purchasing decision," said Mike Paxton, senior analyst at In-Stat/MDR. "This is a trend that has become prominent over the last twelve months, as more and more people are building their own digital content libraries."

"Outside of the music market, handheld video players and other personal media players will increasingly incorporate 1-inch hard drive storage," Paxton said. "In addition, other products like mobile phones and handheld GPS systems are expected to integrate hard disk drives in the near future."

"Handheld entertainment device makers and system integrators need a storage partner that can ensure consistent and reliable supply, and provide substantial manufacturing scale, global supply chain and product design support," said Pat O'Malley, Seagate senior vice president of Consumer Electronics Business Development. "Seagate delivers a complete business and technology partnership that enables growth in the pocket music player market segment."

Seagate's unique Design Service Centers (DSC) provide dedicated labs to help device makers and channel system integrators design innovative new consumer electronics products. DSC offer a variety of testing, integration and mechanical analysis services, to help customers design, innovate and deliver a new world of hard drive-capable entertainment.

RunOn Technology: Reliability under high-motion conditions.
People often bring their music player with them when walking, running or during other physical activities. Seagate's ST1 Series differs from other hard drives because it is designed to compensate for the vibrations and harmonic distortion caused by such high-motion activities. The drive incorporates Seagate RunOn technology, which enables the drive to detect when these unwanted harmonic frequencies occur and automatically keep the read heads on track. Consequently, the RunOn technology can increase the reliability - and customer satisfaction - of a handheld consumer electronics device.

G-Force Protection: Protection against shocks from mishandling.
When many hard drive-based devices are dropped, the read/write heads remain over the media. A hard drop creates a shock that can cause the heads to slap against the hard drive's platter - pieces of the head can be scattered in the drive, and a microscopic dent can be left on the platter. Seagate understands that drops happen, and builds the ST1 Series hard drive with G-Force Protection, which protects the drive against shock by moving the heads off the platter when the device is powered off. Thus, during a drop, no parts make contact with the media inside the drive. G-Force Protection makes any handheld device using the ST1 Series hard drive more robust and more reliable.