Seagate announces first 12GB 1-inch hard drive

We're getting all too accustomed to hard drive makers squeezing more and more data into smaller and smaller spaces, but there's still something really sweet about the news that Seagate's rolling out a new 12GB 1-inch drive called the ST1.3 that's 23% smaller than their current 1-inch drive yet squeezes in 50% more storage capacity. They're aiming these drives squarely at mobile phone makers, so brace yourselves for announcements of a whole bunch of 12GB cellphones in the weeks and months after Seagate starts shipping these things (they're saying it'll be Q3 of this year).

P.S. - Yeah, we know that flash is where it's at for portable devices, but it'll be a while before it's feasible (from a cost perspective) to put 12GB of flash into a cellphone.

[Nick @ Feb 13th 2006 4:55PM]

For those of you interested in what the little image is in the bottom left of the picture, its Semacode [http://semacode.org/For those of you interested in what the little image is in the bottom left of the picture, its Semacode [http://semacode.org/]

[erq @ Jun 25th 2007 2:24PM]

Nick It's not a semacode...

http://www.idautomation.com/datamatrixfaq.html

[fred @ Oct 8th 2007 9:08AM]

SemaCode did not come up with that barcode tag. It's a standard used for larger byte i.d. and semacode got it from this other standard. why would they put semacode on the inside of a hdd, lol so people could click on their web site "welcome to seagate, your warranty is void for opening your drive"
fs

[quay @ Feb 13th 2006 4:57PM]

this needs to be put into the skIII

[bizam! @ Feb 13th 2006 4:57PM]

Whoops...I dropped my cell phone...aww..the Hard Drive crashed. Dang, can't use my phone anymore. Does that sum it up for you?

[Nick @ Feb 13th 2006 4:59PM]

err.. I only posted that sentence once, seems the form has duplicated it :S

[Tim @ Feb 13th 2006 5:00PM]

With all due respect, this is not a 1 inch drive. One inch equals 25.4mm. Neither of the dimensions on the depicted drive equal 1". Besides, the arrows don't seem to extend to the edgest of the drive, implying additional size.

[Peter Rojas @ Feb 13th 2006 5:12PM]

It's the platter that's one-inch. There seems to be some confusion over this.

[Walter @ Feb 13th 2006 5:18PM]

bizam! (troll)
That would sum it up if you hadn't read the article, which you obviously haven't.

From the article "This will increase operational shock resistance 33% up to 2000Gs, enabling the drive to survive a 1.5-meter drop onto hard concrete or ceramic surfaces when properly mounted in a handheld device."

[martin @ Feb 13th 2006 5:19PM]

I'll never trust a hard drive in my cellphone. Although a good laptop hard drive can last 4-5 years, my cellphone gets beat around a lot more than any laptop.

[Logan @ Feb 13th 2006 5:26PM]

12 Gb Ipod Nano.

[khang @ Feb 13th 2006 5:32PM]

i can't wait for 12gb nano.

oh.. yeah...

[Julie Chadwick @ Feb 13th 2006 5:35PM]

I totally need one of these in my DSLR! 4GB of pics just isn't enough any more. ;-)

[iceman @ Feb 13th 2006 5:36PM]

It'd look cool in an iPod.....

[Joe @ Feb 13th 2006 5:36PM]

They need to get things smaller so eventually they can implant everything into our brains. Eventually, our right upper molar will be the play button, upper left the stop button and tongue-flicking will increase or lower the volume.

[AA @ Feb 13th 2006 5:54PM]

@ 8
The first thing I thought was new iPod. Although, I doubt this'll be used for a "Nano," we might see a reincarnation of the mini. It looks like the dimensions are smaller than a CF card (excluding the depth not appearing in the post). Maybe we�ll see a video mini :)

[ajprice @ Feb 13th 2006 5:54PM]

That says 40mm x 30mm, last time i looked an inch was 25.4mm, or are Seagate inches bigger than everyone elses??

[Butch @ Feb 13th 2006 6:01PM]

#11--Please refer to #5

Why don't some people read the other comments before posting their own?

[imacomputa @ Feb 13th 2006 6:02PM]

Can we get this as an add on for the PSP? Somebody please talk to someone somewhere.

[Kontaktanzeigen @ Feb 13th 2006 6:04PM]

Now lets iTunes music all day. Hope the drives comes up soon - it's always such a bore to wait after dadgets have been anounced.

[Desides @ Feb 13th 2006 6:12PM]

"a feature length movie downloaded to your phone or handheld... crazy!"

Yeah, you'd have to be crazy to watch a movie on a cell phone.

[kong @ Feb 13th 2006 6:14PM]

dont tell me sony cant find enough room to squeeze a couple of these into the PS3

would be good to have these hard drives as attachments to controllers

[DerekJ @ Feb 13th 2006 6:15PM]

Just what I need to keep the ol' iPod mini a hummin' along.

[todd @ Feb 13th 2006 6:38PM]

Too far? blasphemy - its never too far.

[Robert Waller @ Feb 13th 2006 6:39PM]

All this extra room for movies etc is all well and good, but unless they come up with a battery with a life of more than a couple of hours then what use will it be.

What we want are betteries that will last at least 8 hours of continuous use.

[Leo Maia @ Feb 13th 2006 6:52PM]

Great news!! I'm not buying any phone before 2007!! I'll keep my Treo 650 for now and wait for my Treo Lifedrive with 12Gb!!!!

[thomas_h @ Feb 13th 2006 7:00PM]

"18. Just what I need to keep the ol' iPod mini a hummin' along."

Word! i hope it will be possible to put this inside my ipod mini which currently sports a 6GB drive. that would've been sweet, 12GB mini.

[NeoteriX @ Feb 13th 2006 7:25PM]

Walter, (#7)

If any of your female friends are like mine, they don't just drop their cell phones from 1.5 meters. THEY THROW THEM. They throw them at the ground, at their boyfriends, at their cars, at the wall--pretty much at anything if they're pissy. Not to be sexist, but nearly all of the girls I particularly know have the most beat up cell phones of all the people I know.

[Peter @ Feb 13th 2006 7:32PM]

I'm still waiting for someone to put one of these (1-inch drive) in a WM or Palm based smart phone...

I'd pay a LOT of money for that because it would replace my K700, Zire 71 and 5G iPod in one go...

Please, Please, someone do this... even if it's quite large (size wise) it would still be great.

Peter

[Timmay @ Feb 13th 2006 8:29PM]

So when can I expect my 12gb Palm LifeDrive?

Timmay

[Smittie @ Feb 13th 2006 9:42PM]

Yep. Squarely at the cell market. The iPod market never crossed their mind. What was the internal width of the iPod nano case? Oh, that's right. Slightly over 1". Nope, it never crossed Seagates mind.

aloha

[Ryan @ Feb 13th 2006 10:28PM]

Combine that with the Light Blue Optics mini-projector technology and a video iPod and you're in business! :D

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/13/new-pvpro-mini-projector-has-no-moving-parts/

[Tulio @ Feb 13th 2006 11:18PM]

Nice. Now if they would just hurry and get this stuff out.

[MRL @ Feb 13th 2006 11:24PM]

"15. Can we get this as an add on for the PSP? Somebody please talk to someone somewhere."

Not as long as Sony keeps trying to forc...I mean, sell their proprietary Memory Stick.

[jonathan @ Feb 13th 2006 11:54PM]

dude number 5 its saying its 30mm not that the arrows are , their purpose is to tell you what side they are taking about for some retards like you

[Peter Payne @ Feb 14th 2006 3:12AM]

Yes, *just today* I went looking at the W41T at the AU shop (sorry, I am lucky and live in Japan), and was so afraid of the "drop" factor that I decided to keep my current phone and buy a nice small digital camera instead (I went with the Canon Ixy LI3).

Imagine how much better the iPod will be in the year that this tech rolls out, really.

[Galley @ Feb 14th 2006 7:32AM]

I'd like to add my vote for a 12GB LifeDrive.

[TomTheGeek @ Feb 14th 2006 11:43AM]

It's not that crazy, I've been able to watch full length movie(s) on my phone for almost a year now. I can fit 4-5 hour and a half movies on my 1GB mini-sd card. Give me 12GB though and you really start to have the possibility of an iPod killer. I already have a shuffle killer.

Think about it, that's the only thing that has a chance to de-throne the iPod, putting iPod capabilities into the phone that everyone is already carrying around. Apple has a little bit of time yet (3-5 years), but you can be sure they will start making phones soon enough.

[poopeta @ Feb 15th 2006 6:56PM]

i want 12 GB's in my shoe and a new NEC flexible battery pack in my ars hole

[Alasdair Allan @ Feb 17th 2006 5:26AM]

...and here I'd only gone and just bought a 5GB version.

[Tak @ Feb 22nd 2006 4:18PM]

Heh. Seems I'm going to have to get a new PDA then... Sooner than I'd like unfortunately. :(
But I wouldn't be able to resist one if it had one of these little fella's in it. O_O

[College Student @ Feb 25th 2006 9:40AM]

and here I'd only gone and just bought a 5GB version

[Ken @ Mar 5th 2006 2:45PM]

Trying to understand what the follwowing size is in
GB (Gigabyte Size).

311,354.33 Size.

Thanks

[Lacene @ Mar 5th 2006 8:57PM]

311,354.33 is strange - when someone posts the total bytes, they usually dont use tenths (.33) - there's no such thing as a tenth of a byte (there ARE bits in a byte, but that's never referenced), and they dont round down to some unique number, like "311,354,330 bytes is 311,354.33 kilobytes". Usually they just say 311,354,330 bytes, 311,354 kilobytes, 311.3 megabytes, or .3 gigabytes. But it's probably one of the above.