At the request of equipment producer looking to construct a novel class of ultra-thin laptops, Hitachi GST proclaimed it will start shipping quarter-inch broad hard drives 26% slimmer than present drives in majority of laptops and netbooks.
"Netbooks today aren't unavoidably slim.

They're cheaper. That producers are trying to do is move up from the normal netbook, to ultra-thin and light notebooks," said, Hitachi GST's vice president of marketing. "So they're trying to add more worth and move clients up the price.

Collins said future ultra-light notebooks for which the novel drives are being produced target a souk section among low-end netbooks and high-end, ultra-thin laptops, such as the Macbook Air.

The ultra-light laptops are predictable to roll out in the third quarter of the year.

Hitachi's novel Z-series drives are .27-in thick and have a solo spinning platter with up to 320GB ability, the similar ability as the company's .37-inch thick, single-platter precursor.

Collins said Hitachi is not launching an optional retail price because it sells to equipment produce or resellers, who then decide the pricing.

Hitachi said the drive slim down was encouraged by notebook producers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and Aser, which everyone preparation to create thinner, lighter laptops. The novel hard drives, though, will serve various markets, with television set-top boxes and moveable video players, Collins said.