5GB (yes, 5!) in your SPV anyone???

[Guest Dylan]

Well, maybe not in your SPV.

Got sent this link by a guy in work. Maybe the next gen of smartphones will have this kind of capacity?

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-1012235.ht...html?tag=fd_top

I especially like this bit:

'A reduction in components cuts costs. The 1.5-inch 5GB drive, which has been in volume manufacturing since mid-April, sells for $65 in quantities of 10,000. The company is aiming for $50, Magenis said. By contrast, existing standard 1-inch Microdrives from IBM sell for $219 at retail or more, while 1GB flash cards go for around $200.'

So if less components means lower cost, howcome laptops are so pricey?

Anyway...

[Guest Brody]

Cool!! Some kind of microdrive in a smartphone would rock!! :lol:

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Any they're hoping for $50 soon, so thats £35ish for a 5 gig hdd in your phone.

Only problem is CF (sameish size as microdrives) is not the most compact format (ironically), compared to SD...

Still, would be amazing for iPaq's and laptops...

[Guest spacemonkey]

Interesting stuff... just take it with a grain of salt. You get companies announcing the newest greatest take over the world small storage technology once or twise a month... very few of these products actually come to market.

Sony's PSP is based around discs of a similar size to minidisc but holding allegedly 4.8Gb maybe that'll be the next big thing?

Right, I'm off to start holding my breath :lol:

[Guest arunhallan]

ive seen a 5gb SD card in stuff magazine... £1500 i think it cost

[Guest James]

5gb sd card! now that is amazing! bit pricey...

[Guest priccijr]

The article says there selling in quantities of 10,000 so to get one you have to pay $650,000 and try to sell the rest. Microdrives are removeable I don't think these are.

[Guest Dylan]

The article says there selling in quantities of 10,000 so to get one you have to pay $650,000 and try to sell the rest. Microdrives are removeable I don't think these are.

I see your point but what I was trying to put across is that if manufacturers (HTC, Samsung, Intel...) can pick the drives up that cheap and incorporate them into future phones then that can only be good!

You're right, they're not removable but then neither is the one in my laptop!!! :lol:

[Guest Hax]

These will be prices to other manufacturers. They'll then add on their margin, so the $50 to them certainly won't be $50 to us! But as the mobile phone market is generally quite high volume, there may only be a two-fold mark up on the cost price - as opposed to the general mark-up of *five* times the cost of components in the leisure marine electronics market.

Hax

[Guest Kiri]

Here you can find out how to get a 5G microdrive cheap... Just take it out of a cheap mp3 player. This page shows you how to do it, not english but look at the pictures

http://www.pocketfreak.dk/tips/5gbplads/5gbplads.html

[Guest jambo]

I think the best storage method for mobile phones would be a small bluetooth hard drive.

Edit: Speak of the devil!.. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_689676.html

[Guest Kiri]

Hmmm... Then you have to have one more device on you.. A device that has to have batteries and so on... No good

[Guest dog]

The problem with microdrives, apart from price, is that they have moving parts.......so they'll suck the life out of your battery and will break when you drop your phone. I don't doubt we'll see mini-HDD in handsets or PDA phones, but imho flash will take over when the price is right.

[Guest Pigo]

I agree. The price is allready dropping... just look at what a 256 cost a year ago... en then compare it to what a 512 or even a 1Gb costs now.

just think of what the price could be next year... or maybe the it could climb as high as 5Gb for the price of a 1Gb now.... who know's

microdrives sound cool but not really useable in a smartphone... maybe they could use those microdrives to decrease the size of the current laptops or something.

Pigo