Seagate To Ship New Drives

The Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company is hoping its new products will allow it to cover about 20 percent more of the market " a $5 billion opportunity " while pushing 400 Gbytes of desktop storage closer to an industry standard.

The company is hoping, among other things, the availability of higher-than-ever amounts of desktop and notebook storage will drive success for it in the custom system builder channel.

"This is a way for system builders to differentiate themselves right now," said Rob Pait, director of global consumer electronics marketing for Seagate. In addition, he said, Seagate's entry into the mobile notebook hard drive space could tap into the custom system space.

"There's a big white book market that's starting to build," Pait said. "We will be selling the (Momentus) drive into the white book market."

Additionally, the company says it will move into the enterprise storage arena.

Among its forthcoming network products will be a Seagate NL35 Series " a 500 Gbyte, 7200 RPM nearline device which the company will make available in the fourth quarter. The company believes it can competitively price the device, and make it attractive for enterprises to upgrade to a half-terabyte of storage.

"I think it's an increasing opportunity for the channel," said Brian Dexheimer, Seagate's executive vice president of global sales and marketing. Specifically, Seagate executives believe the nearline device will bring a higher-volume play into the space for large amounts of storage that doesn't eat large amounts of system resources.

The play for enterprise revenue with the new product line may win over some investors and other observers, who see it as a way the company can grow organically.

"It's hard to imagine that a company that holds fifty percent of the enterprise market has further opportunities to grow, but it does," wrote analysts from Thomas Weisel Partners, in a report evaluating the IT storage market. "For instance, the hottest market in enterprise storage remains completely untapped by Seagate."

With its new products, Seagate is aiming to tap it.

Among the other products Seagate plans to roll out:

• The Barracuda 7200.8 PC or nearline storage device, with either 250 Gbytes, 300 Gbytes or 400 Gbytes of storage, which should ship in the third calendar quarter of the year;
• The Momentus 7200.1 notebook drive, in 60 Gbytes, 80 Gbytes and 100 Gbytes capacities, which should be available in the fourth quarter;
• The Momentus 5400.2 notebook drive, with capacities of 60 Gbytes, 80 Gbytes, and 100 Gbytes, available in the third quarter;
• A 1-inch, external USB drive, with capacities of 5 Gbytes and 2.5 Gbytes, available in the third quarter;
• A 2.5-inch external USB drive, at 40 Gbytes, to be available in the third quarter;
• A 3.5 Gbytes external drive, with capacities of 350 Gbytes, 300 Gbytes and 400 Gbytes, available in the fourth quarter;
• The DB35 Series drive for the Digital Video Recorder space, in capacities of 250, 300 and 400 Gbytes, both PATA and SATA capable, available in the third quarter;
• The ST1 Series for the handheld computing space, with capacities of 5 Gbytes and 2.5 Gbytes, available in the third quarter;
• And the CF Photo Drive, at capacities of 5 Gbytes and 2.5 Gbytes, available in the third quarter;
• The Savvio 10K.1 serial attached SCSI drive, for the High I/O density space, with capacities of 73 Gbytes and 36 Gbytes available in the fourth quarter.
• The new products could come as a shot in the arm to Seagate during a time when its faltered slightly. Earlier this year, the company said inventory imbalances were cutting into its finances, and it disappointed some investors on wall street with earnings. Earlier this month, the company said it would cut its expenses by $150 million, or 7 percent, although executives there have yet to say if or how that would cut into its headcount and employee ranks.