In a sign of good things to come, Seagate is getting into the flash memory-based Solid state Drives (SSDs) market:
Bill Watkins, Seagate’s chief executive, disclosed in an interview that the company will enter the market next year for devices that store data on flash chips, while still mainly relying on products based on spinning magnetic disks.
This should help to increase capacities while driving costs down.
SSDs can extend battery life, improve durability, speed certain things up (booting, etc.) while helping lower weight. Many ultraportable laptop makers are starting to offer the option of adding SSDs in pace of mechanical drives, albeit at a very expensive price (for now).