For the past couple of years, Seagate’s portable 5GB drive was quite popular. But 5GB is so 2004. Now Seagate is introducing a whole new line of portable hard drives, ranging from pocket-sized to pocketbook-sized (official press release). The smallest unit will come in either 12GB or 16GB when it ships later this year, which is a perfect amount of storage to have accessible when you are on the move. Here’s a little video we shot at Seagate’s booth during CES 2007:
I think it’s interesting that they are referring to the drives as “data movers” (under the Freeagent brand). I’m not sure if that’s exactly the terminology I’d be using to market portable storage. I see the concept that you use the drive to “move data” from one PC to another, but with 12GB, that’s a lot of data to move. I think a 1GB or 2GB USB flash drive is more appropriate as a “data mover” (unless you are doing a lot of video editing). To me, 12GB is a good chunk of a personal media collection. It’s all your digital photos, or much of your music collection. Don’t get me wrong, I love the product, I just think the marketing may need a tweak.
This becomes even more true on the higher volume Freeagent drives (500+ GB!) which are clearly more for personal backup than anything else. And keep an eye on backup – I’m predicting it’ll be a big trend in 2007!
More Seagate CES coverage: Engadget, Tech Digest, and Electronista.