Re: Toshiba Doubling 1.8-inch HDD Production
Originally posted by Macrumors
Toshiba plans to expand into 1" hard drives in the future. 1" form factor drives are already being produced by Hitachi at this time.
Interesting choice of words. I'd think Toshiba would want to
contract into 1" hard drives...
Personally, I think this is potentially bad for Apple but good for us. Bad for them because it means more competitors are looking to produce iPod knockoffs with potentially the same bestselling form factor and capacities. Good for us because Apple will be forced to lower prices to keep up and possibly even innovate further. Plus as other people said, higher production probably means lower costs per unit, which means Apple may not be quite so reluctant to lower prices anyway.
Incidentally, are the Hitachi 1" drives maybe the same as the IBM MicroDrives? I recall the IBM sold off their hard drive business to Hitachi sometime in the last year. I wonder if competition among drive suppliers can also only help bring prices down.
Sounds like the future of iPod is pretty bright. Of course, I'm happy with mine and only desire a couple of small improvements (there's always hope that they listened to me for the next firmware update!). I figure my next portable music player may wait until they have decent voice recognition (5-10 years out, or longer???). Imagine driving in the car and telling your iPod to mix up a playlist of only early songs from a few certain artists. All while keeping your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road!