Samsung ending 1.8-inch HDD production?
updated 11:40 am EDT, Fri June 26, 2009
Samsung May end 1 8in HDDs
Samsung may be triggering a sudden crunch in supplies of 1.8-inch hard drives through a strategic decision, Taiwan-area notebook builders reportedly said today. They claim that the Korean company has stopped development of the ultra-mobile disks in favor of solid-state drives, cutting the number of suppliers in half. Only Toshiba is left, DigiTimes says, and it's feared that prices might go up as the remaining producer tries to control demand.
Without Samsung, a shortage or a price increase could be severely damaging to the electronics market, which depends heavily on the small but relatively inexpensive mass storage. Many ultraportables and netbooks, such as the MacBook Air and VAIO P, use 1.8-inch hard drives in their base models. Certain hard drive-based media players like the iPod classic and Zune 120 also depend on 1.8-inch disks.
Samsung hasn't commented on the assertions.
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Joined: Jul 2006
Does Samsung know somethi
Does Samsung know something? Is there a problem with getting more capacity on 1.8 drives, a wall of sorts. Or is the solid state drive that much more profitable? No company abandons a product that's still selling well on a whim.