Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced two new editions to its S Series external hard drive line up; the 3.5-inch 2TB (Terabyte) S3 Station and the 640 Gigabyte (GB) 2.5-inch S2 portable. These two new family members strengthen Samsung’s external drive portfolio of 1.8”, 2.5” and 3.5” drives, thereby widening the choice of reliable portable storage solutions for customers. Samsung’s hard drive line up, including S2 Portable 640GB, S1 Mini and STORY Station will be demonstrated in Hall 20 at IFA.
“As consumer demands continue to escalate for storing personal data, music and video files, Samsung has expanded its extensive family of external hard drives to support the growing personal storage market,” said Cheol-hee Lee, vice president of marketing, Storage Systems Division, Samsung Electronics. “The new drives provide users with a sleek design and high-density choices in both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors.”
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. (MKM) announced today the acquisition of Freecom B.V., a privately held data storage and multimedia solutions provider established in Germany with headquarters in Rijswijk, Netherlands and offices in Austria, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and United Kingdom. Effective September 1, 2009, the stock-funded acquisition includes all of Freecom’s physical assets, patents, trademarks, technology, engineering, sales and marketing expertise. The purchase price was not disclosed. With the acquisition, MKM adds Freecom to the MKM/Verbatim group. Verbatim is already a leading brand in the worldwide external storage market.
The Freecom acquisition represents yet another investment made by the MKM/Verbatim group aimed at the growing external hard disk drive (HDD) market. The asset acquisition of SmartDisk, made in June 2007, has proved successful in establishing MKM/Verbatim in both the portable and desktop external HDD markets on a global basis. By leveraging the strength of the Verbatim brand and channel relationships in the worldwide removable storage markets, the MKM/Verbatim external HDD business has grown more than 600 percent during the past two years.
Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.'s Storage Device Division (SDD), the industry pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today introduced a 640GB model to its personal storage line, responding to consumer needs for robust storage space in an intuitive, easy-to-use backup solution for the exponential amounts of digital content they are amassing.

According to leading research firm IDC, consumer-generated digital content is growing 55 percent annually with 70 percent of all digital content being created by individuals versus businesses. IDC predicts that by 2010, 36.5 terabytes of data will be created per second - that's a stack of books that could extend from the sun to Pluto - and back.
To address this explosion in personal digital content and help consumers protect their precious data for years to come, Toshiba's new portable hard drive offers high capacity, an easy-to-use interface and special features to enhance the backup experience, making it a flexible and dependable storage solution for any user. This digital safety net can store up to 182,000 digital photos, 168,000 digital music files or 520 downloaded digital movies.
Toshiba Corporation, the pioneer in small form factor hard disk drives (HDDs), today announced a new series of 5,400 RPM 2.5-inch HDDs offering up to 640GB of capacity, the industries' largest for a 2.5HDD capacity. With demands for storage at an all-time high, Toshiba's new 2.5-inch HDD lineup is an attractive solution for an array of computing applications from high performance notebook PCs, all-in-one desktops, to high definition images applications, which can benefit from lower power consumption without sacrificing storage capacity.

With an areal density of 817.9Mbit/mm2, (528.5 Gbit/in2), the new series includes 640GB, 500GB, 320GB, 250GB and 160GB models. For added durability, Toshiba offers a free-fall sensor option to help protect the drive should the host system be dropped.
WD today announced that it is now shipping desktop 7200 RPM 2 TB hard drives and is qualifying with OEMs enterprise-class hard drives based on WD's 500 gigabytes-per-platter technology. The popular family of WD Caviar Black drives, now led by the new 2 TB capacity, is perfect for gaming, high-performance desktop systems and workstations; while the WD RE4 2 TB is suited for servers, network attached storage and storage networks.

High-performance hard drives by an industry leader in performance, WD Caviar Black and WD RE4 2 TB drives combine 7200 RPM spin speed, 64 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive.
Building on years of innovation, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that is it shipping its fifth-generation, 7200 RPM mobile hard disk drive. The Hitachi® Travelstar™ 7K500 is a 500GB, 2.5-inch, 3Gb/s SATA drive designed for notebooks, gaming systems and professional external storage solutions. Combining leadership performance, ruggedness and capacity, Travelstar 7K500 is ideal for multitasking, gaming and other graphic-intensive applications. The new Travelstar 7K500 is the fastest hard drive in its class and delivers up to 56 percent higher capacity and 16 percent better application performance than its predecessor. It also provides best-of-breed operating shock and outstanding power management for sturdy, unplugged notebook performance.

“Portable PC shipment growth continues to be one of the most significant market drivers underpinning 2.5-inch disk drive demand, and is a major reason why IDC expects the 2.5-inch mobile HDD market will grow at a 16.8 percent 2008-2013 compound annual growth rate,” said John Rydning, research director for hard disk drives at IDC. “Hitachi’s new 500GB mobile 2.5-inch HDD with a 7,200 rpm spin-speed provides PC OEMs an opportunity to differentiate PCs with both capacity and performance.”
Seagate, the world's leading provider of hard drives and storage solutions, and MusicSkins LLC, the leader in music and music-related, high-quality, vinyl skin products, today announced a marketing partnership to add personal flair to the FreeAgent Go(TM) and FreeAgent Go(TM) for Mac external hard drives. With a wide range of skins from a vast catalog of licensed creative or customized designs, this partnership expands on the already extensive range of FreeAgent(®) drive color, size and capacity options that let people to put their personal stamp on their Seagate external storage devices.

MusicSkins' utilizes a patented 3M(®) adhesive technology that prevents air bubbles and allows for both easy application and clean removal. These hassle-free, premium vinyl skins offer a distinctive look, and personal style to Seagate external drives, while also safeguarding the device with a durable anti-scratch, anti-UV coating to protect the exterior of the hard drive. From Bob Marley to John Lennon, Madonna to Lil Wayne, EXPLODINGDOG to Adult Swim, and even personal photos and images, there's a MusicSkin to suit every personality.
Apricorn, an innovative provider of secure mobile storage, today released the Aegis Padlock Secure Hard Drive, a portable hardware encrypted drive and secure storage system. With an easy-to-use keypad and software-free design, the Aegis Padlock offers customers immediate secure access to the drive using a customized personal identification number. Offering a choice of AES-128 or 256 bit hardware encryption, the Aegis Padlock provides seamless real-time encryption to keep data secure even if the hard drive is removed from its enclosure.

In designing the Aegis Padlock, Apricorn had three goals in mind: security, simplicity and affordability. With a one page Quick Start Guide and software-free setup, the Aegis Padlock enables you to be up and running with your own unique PIN in minutes. The Aegis Padlock’s pricing is competitive with many standard USB portable drives. Therefore, the premium for secure, real-time, hardware encrypted storage solutions is less of an issue and affordable for most consumers.
With its software-free design and ability to run on any platform, the Aegis Padlock is easy to deploy in corporate environments and is perfect for business travelers looking to secure their data on the road. Its “Administrator Feature” recognizes enrollment of up to ten unique user IDs and one administrator, further allowing it to function as a secure business collaboration tool.
With the announcement today of its new InSight(TM) Portable USB Hard Drives, Verbatim(R) Americas, LLC, the world’s leader in storage media technology, takes hard drive design to a new dimension. The sleek, durable enclosure is enhanced with a premium piano black finish that will appeal to professional as well as home users. Additionally, the InSight Portable Hard Drive features an Always On display, which automatically calculates and continuously displays the customizable drive name and available free space, even when the drive is disconnected from the computer. Shipping now, the palm-sized external hard drive will enable Windows(R) and Mac(R) users to instantly add 320GB or 500GB of stylish, removable capacity to their notebook or desktop systems.

“The new enclosure design for InSight Portable Hard Drives adds a touch of elegance to the external hard drive product category,” says Charles Klinker, Verbatim’s Director of Marketing, HDD Products. “Users have the option to personalize their drive’s name, e.g., TUNES&PICS, which, along with the free space, shows on the 32 x 128-pixel display even when the drive is unplugged from the user’s computer. The ability to quickly glance at several drives and identify the one that has pictures of the kids, your music collection or video library, for example, adds a level of convenience not previously available in portable hard drives.”
Continuing its tradition of being first-to-market with industry leading hard drives, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that it is now shipping the world’s first, two terabyte (2TB), 7200 RPM hard disk drive (HDD). The new, colossal, 2TB Deskstar™ 7K2000 blends high performance and high capacity with low power and other eco-friendly features designed to enable Energy-Star rated computers and other high performance desktop systems.

Leveraging a solid track record for reliability, the new Deskstar 7K2000 is now in its fourth-generation using the company’s unique five-platter design with relaxed bit density and proven perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. Couple this with an ultra-quiet operation, a 32MB cache and a 3Gb/s SATA interface, and the new Deskstar 7K2000 is the ideal desktop drive for power users, gamers or anyone looking for a big, fast hard drive.