Seagate Technology is making a play for the mainstream notebook market with the release today of the latest addition to its Momentus 5400 hard drive family, Momentus 5400.4 notebook hard drive.
The new 2.5-inch notebook hard drive, with up to 250GB of capacity, succeeds the Momentus 5400.3 hard drive which had a maximum capacity of 160GB. Joni Clark, senior product marketing manager, personal compute business with the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based hard disc drive manufacturer, says the company wanted to introduce a new hard drive that would meet the current growth demands of the notebook PC market space.
“Desktop growth rates aren’t nearly as high as notebook PCs,” Clark said. “Desktops aren’t making a whole lot of money now with their drop in prices. Notebooks seem to be fueling the industry in terms of growth and revenue.”
Clark says the notebook market is especially important to Seagate, which is why the 5400.4 was specifically designed for mainstream notebooks, gaming notebooks and workstations, and can also be used for external storage.
This new notebook hard drive is also a great opportunity for channel partners, Clark says, because today’s customers are looking for drives that can reach the 250GB capacity and higher mark.
“With this size hard drive capacity, partners can reach a larger customer base and they can also attain higher margins,” Clark said. “The beauty of this drive is that a lot of the market is already buying the previous family. We’re hoping to move these customers from the Momentus 5400.3 to the new Momentus 5400.4 version.”
While Seagate does not sell directly to VARs, it does sell through distributors such as Avnet, Bell Micro and Tech Data.
The drive’s recording system is based on Seagate’s second generation Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) technology, which Clark says allows more data to be stored as the drive stands magnetic bits upright and embeds them into the media. This also has the benefit of reducing costs as the driver contains fewer moving parts.
“The drive also consumes low power during read and write capabilities,” Clark said. “This means users can work longer because the battery life is being extended.”
Also attractive to the channel and end-users, says Clark, is Seagate’s warranty service will. Seagate offers a five-year limited warranty on every Seagate internal hard drive and entry-level server sold through the channel.
Moving forward, Clark says Seagate will maintain its focus on the notebook space because that’s where much of the demand and market needs are.
Hard drives are no longer just a black box sitting in a PC,” Clark said. “That’s why we make sure our drives are reliable and secure.”
