This week, Samsung quietly let it slip that it had reached the 160GB mark for its 1.8" HDD, the Spinpoint N2. The previous record for 1.8" HDDs had been 120GB, held by, yep, Samsung. In case you're not an Apple fanboy, this is extra good news because 1.8" is the HDD format required by iPods. They are also making their way into teeny, tiny camcorders by Samsung and its customers competitors colleagues.
Pricing has not been announced, but the 120GB Spinpoint N2 costs $249, so the 160GB version will be higher still. And from what market research Samsung has done, there's no reason to lower prices just yet:
"The 1.8inch HDD market will grow at a tremendous pace with annual sales expected to increase up to 65% by 2010 as consumers demand smaller, more compact technology devices," states Andrew Higginbotham, director of hard drive sales and marketing, Samsung Semiconductor Inc.
According to TSR, the market research institute, the HDD camcorder segment of the camcorder market will grow from 4 million units in 2006 to over 8 million units by the end of 2011.
Sounds like the sky's the limit, at least until flash memory catches up in capacity—and price.
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