60GB and 120GB 1.8'' Drives from Seagate

[MacRumors]

Seagate will be releasing 60GB and 120GB 1.8" hard drives later this year.

We did not have a drive for [the handheld video business] that will come in capacities of 60 and 120 GB, and so we will have one in the December quarter and we think that will be a nice little driver for us. We feel a whole lot better about things than Wall Street does right now.

60GB and 120GB drives of this form factor could be used in future iPod releases.

[Buschmaster]

What's left to upgrade on the current iPod? Probably just, say, bluetooth.

That's way too much storage for most people, and though, it would be nice for some, it would probably be way out of mosts price range for an mp3 player.

[jayb2000]

my iTunes library is ~54 GB

so 60GB drive is not good for my iPod. Between formatted capacity and beig able to use it as a drive, 120 would be great

[shadowmoses]

120gb true iPod video now that would be awesome!!!!

ShadoW

[emotion]

Originally Posted by Buschmaster

That's way too much storage for most people, and though, it would be nice for some, it would probably be way out of mosts price range for an mp3 player.

You're not thinking video, much larger drives are needed then.

[spicyapple]

I'd rather see price reductions, or move to 1" drives and take over the iPod mini form factor. The current iPods are too big!

[MacRumoron]

an ipod that has more space than my computer... cool

[BWhaler]

So, to ask the stupid clarification question, the 1.8" drive is the size in the iPod?

Does Apple use the Seagate drives?

[Buschmaster]

Originally Posted by emotion

You're not thinking video, much larger drives are needed then.

No, I am. But I guess I have the entire collection of the Office, a few full movies, and thousands of songs and don't come close to even touching the 30GB, if I did I'd need another drive in this computer. Why have a larger drive in my iPod than my laptop?

If they make a "true video iPod" like everyone wants, I think they would continue to make the current one and the true video iPod would be a higher priced product.

[Chundles]

So, we now have 750GB 3.5" drives and 120GB 1.8" drives. Seems to me the current range-topping 200GB 2.5" drive (at 12.5mm thick) is a bit of a slacker - they need to be getting towards 300GB.

What's the biggest 1.0" drive getting around nowadays?

120GB would be deadset sweet for a portable media player, and for those audio nuts with all their stuff in Lossless.

Christmas could be a ripper, Papa iPod is dying on me and taking my computer with it when I plug it in. Time for a new one.

[emotion]

Originally Posted by Buschmaster

No, I am. But I guess I have the entire collection of the Office, a few full movies, and thousands of songs and don't come close to even touching the 30GB, if I did I'd need another drive in this computer. Why have a larger drive in my iPod than my laptop?

Laptop drives are bigger these days too. Just upgrade that too.

[Buschmaster]

Originally Posted by emotion

Laptop drives are bigger these days too. Just upgrade that too.

Why have more space? Just to have more?

[emotion]

Originally Posted by Buschmaster

Why have more space? Just to have more?

That's how computing works. There is a tech-driver for most things. The driver for bigger drives is video these days (previous driver was mp3).

The plan is to make people spend as much money on hardware as possible

[Chundles]

Originally Posted by Buschmaster

Why have more space? Just to have more?

Why not?

I have 20+GB of music and about 10GB of videos at the moment with just a few TV series ripped.

If all goes to plan next year I'll be on the road a lot and being able to plug an iPod into a TV and watch a stack of movies and TV shows is going to be a hell of a lot easier than lugging DVDs all over the place.

More space = good. Even more space = better.

[iGary]

Well, we know that Apple cannot afford to go into Christmas without a new iPod, and a simple size bump will not do, since they skipped a summer revision.

Something has to happen before Christmas, or people are definitely going to start looking at other things (players).

[emotion]

Originally Posted by iGary

Well, we know that Apple cannot afford to go into Christmas without a new iPod, and a simple size bump will not do, since they skipped a summer revision.

Something has to happen before Christmas, or people are definitely going to start looking at other things (players).

Non-scratchy enclosures would swing me

[spicyapple]

Originally Posted by iGary

Something has to happen before Christmas

iPod invisa!

[magid]

I would be very happy if I could get my hands on a 120gb full screened iPod come the holiday for $399.

[mdntcallr]

This is great.

but when the hell is apple going to offer the 160GB laptop hard drive as a BTO option?

hell, there are even 200 GB laptop hard drives coming in a month or so.

for a ipod to have as much storage as a full laptop. without apple offering more space on order for laptops is just dumb.

give us the option to buy a larger drive without having to goto a third party APPLE!

[amac4me]

120 GB would be a great spec for a true Video iPod.

[w_parietti22]

Originally Posted by Buschmaster

Why have more space? Just to have more?

If you've ever worked with video the laptop HDs are not enough. For me I have about 40gbs of Music, Photos, Apps, Mac OS, etc. With my video camera its about 15-20gb/hour. Which means on a laptop you have to use an external HD and if you are on the go with that data you need bus powered which is even more expensive. The more internal data that you can get... you should take.


120gb iPod would be awesome but I dont think i would need that much. 60gb would be fine for me.

[rockthecasbah]

I think this may see an introduction of a third iPod in the size chart. Apple may leave the 30GB (average user that needs more than a Nano or wants the full enclosure), then maybe 60GB available in either the current case design or new low end full screen and the 120GB in strictly a full screen iPod?

[dausone]

Originally Posted by BWhaler

So, to ask the stupid clarification question, the 1.8" drive is the size in the iPod? Does Apple use the Seagate drives?

Yes and no.
Toshiba is the current supplier of iPod drives.

The quote in its entirety from the article is rather interesting as the ceo of seagate mentions Apples Video iPod as a possible client, also talks of making price cuts in the drives for those concerned about cost...

"We have a whole new product refresh coming up that drops our cost structure quite significantly that will allow us to be highly competitive. And we have this new opportunity in 1.8-inch drives, which is starting to grow for handheld video. Apple's (AAPL) iPod is one, but there are a lot of people putting out handheld video devices. We did not have a drive for that business that will come in capacities of 60 and 120 GB, and so we will have one in the December quarter and we think that will be a nice little driver for us. We feel a whole lot better about things than Wall Street does right now."

[BlizzardBomb]

Originally Posted by Chundles

What's the biggest 1.0" drive getting around nowadays?

Seagate has had a 12GB hard drive for a while and it uses a lot less power than regular 1" drives.

[syklee26]

if Apple will actually start selling 120gb iPods, they need to bring back firewire support. importing 120gb on USB 2.0 will take forever. while FW800 support would be great too, there just isn't many users with FW800 so it might not be the effort and cost.