Hitachi to Launch 100GB Notebook SATA Drive
By Bhavika Jhaveri
Mumbai, Sep 16, 2004

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) is set to introduce its Travelstar 5K100, a 100GB SATA drive for notebook PCs. The product will be made available in India through its Bangalore-based distributor Cyberstar.

The 5400-RPM drive will be available in two models, the Travelstar 5K100 for standard notebook applications and ESK100 for more demanding data-access applications. These drives should be in India by mid-October, 2004.

Speaking about the new launch, Raj Rathi, MD, Cyberstar, said, "Hitachi is the first HDD vendor to come out with 100GB SATA notebook drive. We are expecting a very good response for these drives in the Indian market. This is an high capacity, high-performance drive. This is the main reason why Hitachi has more than 60 percent market share in 2.5" drives.

As part of its marketing strategy, Cyberstar is planning to work with top OEMs and also include these products in regular channel schemes. In addition, it looks to create product awareness through advertisement campaign.'

When asked whether the notebook market in India is ready for SATA drives for notebooks, Rathi explained, "We have always experienced that there is a segment of Indian market that needs best performance and capacity. When Hitachi came out with 400GB desktop drives (industry first) six months back we got very good response from the market.'

Currently, Cyberstar is on an expansion spree and has opened branches at seven locations, taking the count to 11 offices.