Even as prices drop on higher capacity 2.5″ laptop harddrives (HDD), it turns out that netbook manufacturers are looking for something even cheaper.
Seagate Technology, Western Digital and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies are all working on 2.5″ HDDs that are 40-50% cheaper than existing 2.5-inch drives, targeted for netbooks and other low-cost devices. They could be available as soon as the second half of 2009 according to a source for DigiTimes.
The initial specifications will be 80GB on a single HDD platter, with larger sizes dependent upon costs.
Should such drives hit well below the $45 or so average price for current HDDs, the source points out that it could negatively impact the Solid State Drives (SSD).
Read: DigiTimes