Seagate unveils 500GB Ultra Mobile hard drive for Android tablets

Seagate's 5mm hard drives already have a home in slender laptops; today, they're coming to to Android tablets through the company's new Ultra Mobile HDD. The 500GB disk augments the existing 5mm design with a speedy 8GB flash cache, a tougher enclosure and firmware that improves both the energy consumption and shock tolerance. In theory, the Ultra Mobile HDD gives Android slates the capacity of a laptop drive without giving up the speed or resilience of flash storage. It will be a while before anyone can verify those claims, as Seagate hasn't mentioned any customers or ship dates. The company does have something to tide us over, though -- it's previewing a Rescue and Replace service that will offer both data recovery and drive replacements later this year, starting at $30 for two years. Check out details of both the Ultra Mobile HDD and the recovery service in the press releases after the break.

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SEAGATE REDEFINES THE TABLET MARKET

Ultra Mobile HDD Solution Empowers Tablets with 500GB of Storage and the Performance of a Flash Device

NEW YORK, NY. - Sept. 9, 2013 -Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ:STX), a world leader in storage solutions, today took the wraps off the new Seagate® Ultra Mobile HDD designed exclusively for mobile devices. Integrated with the Seagate Mobile Enablement Kit which includes Seagate's Dynamic Data™ Driver software technology, the new storage solution delivers up to 7x the storage capacity of a traditional 64GB tablet with the same power, performance and reliability of a flash device.

"Coupling an ultra-thin, high-capacity HDD with software designed to optimize integration into tablets at a value-add price has allowed us to deliver a truly ground-breaking solution, enabling our partners to reimagine the mobile device," said Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate. "By empowering our OEMs with this revolutionary new technology, we have invited the industry to re-think the mobile market making this offering a true game-changer in the world of storage."

"When comparing side by side a tablet and a portable PC, today's tablets are trading off storage capacity in order to realize a thin and light form factor device and long battery life," noted John Rydning, IDC's research vice president for hard disk drives and semiconductors. "Seagate's new Mobile Enablement Kit will bring PC-like storage capacity to future thin and light tablet designs, and position Seagate as a potential storage solutions provider to the fast-growing tablet market."

Seagate has addressed several key areas beyond a standard laptop HDD to optimize mobile applications with the Ultra Mobile HDD and Mobile Enablement Kit. These areas include shock management, heat and vibration and gyroscopic motion- all of which have been heavily tested to ensure the drive delivers the best experience in a tablet solution.

Seagate Dynamic Data Driver Software

Keeping pace with today's mobile storage demands presents other challenges as well including power consumption requirements, device drops by consumers and user demands. Merging the new Ultra Mobile HDD with the Dynamic Data Driver software alleviates these obstacles enabling OEMs to comfortably fit high-capacity storage into mobile devices.

Seagate's use of Dynamic Data Driver software addresses these challenges through a combination of system design considerations. Reduced power consumption and improved performance are achieved through an intelligent caching design that is implemented at the system level. As a result a mobile device using 8GB of flash and the Ultra Mobile HDD and Dynamic Data Driver software have the power consumption equal to that of a 64GB tablet and the performance equal to that of a 16GB tablet- while costing less than either.

The software provides drive protection through the use of enhanced motion sensor and thermal monitoring algorithms to control drive access and avoid usage conditions that might harm it. The drive is so well insulated that in many cases a dropped device's screen would break before its hard disk drive.

To further reinforce reliability for mobile devices, the Ultra Mobile HDD integrates Seagate's own Zero Gravity™ Sensor providing better shock management. Incorporated power modes support the drive in sleep, standby and idle enabling it to consume as low as 0.14W and support the long battery life demanded by tablets. Its slim, rugged design allows it to be utilized in new emerging applications like convertible and detachable storage.

Leveraging the company's experience with ultra-portable applications like iPods, MP3 players, and handheld video recorders, the newly-engineered 2.5-inch drive is just 5mm thin while weighing in at a mere 3.3oz- about the same as a light bulb. Featuring up to 500GB of capacity, it delivers the highest areal density available in a small, ultra-thin form factor while supporting over 100,000 photos, 125,000 songs or 62 hours of high-definition video and movies.

The Seagate Mobile Enablement Kit includes the Ultra Mobile HDD, Dynamic Data Driver software, and an optional customized reference design which allows HDD-powered tablets to transparently deliver high-capacity storage space to an end user in a mobile solution. The kit is currently designed to support the Android operating system.

The Seagate Ultra Mobile HDD will be available separately and as part of the Seagate Mobile Enablement Kit. For more information on both products please visit http://seagate.com/www/mobilekit.

SEAGATE HELPS ELIMINATE FEAR OF DATA LOSS

Company debuts world's most comprehensive data rescue and hardware replacement service

NEW YORK, NY - September 9, 2013 - Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today announced Seagate Rescue™ and Seagate Rescue and Replace™ data protection plans offering coverage starting at $29.99. Seagate is the first storage solutions provider to offer a complete protection plan that covers drive replacement and data recovery services for data that is contained on the drive. The plans offer coverage for nearly any brand of internal or external hard disk drive or solid-state drive. This first-of-its-kind data protection plan covers data recovery services for data that may have been lost due to physical damage, corruption or accidental deletion at a fraction of the cost of data recovery services purchased after the event. The protection plan will be the first to be offered on a global scale following launches in Canada and Europe later this year and throughout the Asia Pacific region in mid-2014.

"Seagate is very much aware of the level of trust our customers are putting in us by placing their data on our drives. We always advocate backing up, but there may be times when those photos, videos and data might not have made it to a duplicate copy before something goes wrong," said Scott Horn, vice president of marketing for Seagate. "These new data protection plans offer an easy and user-friendly method of helping consumers manage the challenging experience of the potential loss of their most important files, data and memories. We provide peace of mind for those unforeseen events that might damage a drive or its contents."

Today, most everything is stored in an electronic format on a hard drive. From an archived music library, to family photos and video, those moments captured are keepsakes that cannot be captured again if lost. The hard cost of recovering data from a damaged or corrupted drive can reach into the thousands of dollars, where highly skilled technicians must manually disassemble the drive and recover the data bit by bit. Being able to receive data recovery services and also get a replacement drive at an up-front nominal fee provides an option to avoid the high cost of data recovery services.

"Data recovery is often a missing element in personal storage devices," said Liz Conner, Sr. Research Analyst for Personal and Entry Level Storage at IDC. "Traditionally these devices have focused on providing data back-up or additional capacity to PCs, offering little to no options in the event of a storage failure. Seagate's Rescue plan presents end users with peace of mind in the unlikely and unforeseeable event of device damage, drive/file corruption, or accidental file deletion."

The service will first be made available through Seagate.com and will later be able to be purchased from retail and manufacture partners at the time one purchases a computer, external storage or NAS. The Seagate Rescue™ plans come in 2-year, $29.99; 3-year, $39.99; and 4-year, $49.99 MSRP packages. The plan for Seagate Rescue and Replace™, where the data is restored and a new drive is provided, has 2-, 3- and 4 -year offerings, for: $39.99, $49.99 and $59.99 MSRP, respectively.