Bangkok--Jun 24--Seagate Technology
Seagate's 1-inch Pocket Hard Drive is great for carrying music, photos, business files and other data.
As people pile up more and more digital photos and videos, digital music and other content, they need a reliable, simple way to store and back it up.
Seagate's external storage products are tapping this market, from desktop backup solutions to the innovative new USB 2.0 Pocket Hard Drive, offering consumers both form and function.
"Every consumer needs backup and portability. It's one thing to lose a spreadsheet," says Jeff Loebbaka, vice president of global marketing at Seagate. "It's another thing entirely to lose pictures of your kids. That's one reason why the external storage market is growing at high double-digit rates."
But this market's growth isn't just about capacity; it's about easy, intuitive product functionality. Consumers want easy to use, "plug-and-play" solutions that don't require an electrical engineering degree to master.
"Most retail customers aren't going to install an internal drive in an empty bay in their desktop computers," says Paul Shekoski, senior director for Seagate external solutions. "Seagate is differentiating itself in the external drive market because our drives are well-designed and exceptionally easy to use, while maintaining our signature reliability and performance."
Overall ease of use, in fact, is the top requirement for retail consumers buying external drives. That's why Seagate external drives include FireWire or USB 2.0 connectivity that truly is plug-and-play. These advanced interfaces make it very easy to add external storage or back up data.
Backups, Reliability and Compatibility
Beyond ease of use, consumers are looking for effective backup and restore capabilities. Many consumers use external hard drives as redundant devices, so software that manages backups and quickly restores information is invaluable. Seagate's 500 GB External Hard Drive offers easy push-button backup, for example.
Reliability is also crucial to consumers. External drives tend to get moved around and are often stacked. With their high shock tolerance and excellent heat dissipation, Seagate external drives are built to handle these usage patterns. Acoustics are another concern because external drives are often used around the house, in home offices or shared spaces. Seagate's 120 GB Portable External Hard Drive is the quietest hard drive of its kind on the market.
Besides setting a standard for the PC market, Seagate external drives are also compatible with Apple hardware, which can make or break a purchase decision for some. "Creative professionals are disproportionately high users of Apple products," says John Kim, vice president of market researcher TrendFOCUS. "External storage providers must engineer their products to work with Apple hardware, or they risk losing a significant market."
Apple-Friendly Drives
The issue of Apple compatibility brings up a larger point. Users of Apple products have come to expect products that have cutting-edge industrial design, such as the iPod. "The most effective industrial design marries aesthetics, ergonomics, reliability and robustness," says Shekoski.
The sleek and rugged Seagate Pocket Drive achieves this harmony. Just as an eggshell is the optimum shape to protect its contents, the Pocket Hard Drive's rounded exterior provides inherent strength. And although the drive is extremely portable, it has a satisfying feeling of heft. "We have found that consumers like products that feel solid," says Shekoski.
One key design element of the Pocket Drive was in part the result of focus group research, a crucial step in Seagate's industrial design process. "One common complaint users have about thumb drives is the need for a USB extender cable," says Brian Pridgeon, Seagate senior manager for retail product marketing. "The space around USB ports on computers and laptops is often tight, preventing small drives from plugging in directly. The retractable USB cable makes the Pocket Drive extremely versatile, and it's always there when you need it."
The Path Ahead
Now that Seagate has made a splash in the external market, what's next? Of course, the disc drive business will always see increases in capacities and speeds. The Seagate 500 GB External Hard Drive, for instance, will ship this summer. Seagate also plans to deliver the 8 GB Compact Flash Photo Hard Drive, a product that's designed to put the company's breakthrough 1-inch rotating magnetic storage technology directly into the digital photography market.
While rolling out the greatest variety of retail and external storage products in the industry, Seagate remains committed to serving this fast-growing sector with the most reliable, best performing hard drives available.
"Our products make work and play easier and more effective," says Pridgeon. "Seagate is already differentiating itself, and the market opportunities are extraordinary." End.