Seagate: Apple is wrong about SSDs, hybrids are the future

[Relic]

Steve is right here, SSD's are the future. However I don't see Apple bringing that future to the masses with the Macbook Air as they already overcharge for there hardware and SSD's will just bring another premium on top of that. But Luczo's comments are pretty baffling, while yes maybe right now SSD's aren't the best options for the average consumer, size and price will come down and offer a better deal down the road. This seems more of an attempt to push forward a product that's already outdated and has limited uses to the average consumer then anything else.

marioestrada said:
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay

Apple has been predicting the future for a long time (iPod, iPhone, iTunes Store, iPad).

Science Fiction writing predicts & inspires the future, nerds & techies usually invent it and then either get bought up by a big company like Apple or create one. All of those products you listed weren't predicted by Apple, they just took them a step further gave them great marketing and put an i infront of them. Apple however is one of the best in the industry at taking existing ideas making them popular & appeal to the average consumer.

 

[Guest]

This reminds me of the similar arguments that were put forward at the start of the Digital Camera age ... "DC's will never replace film, because" ..... they're more expensive, resolution isn't good enough, quality, dynamic range ...

Technology moves on, guys.

SSDs are based around silicon chips, with no moving parts. Silicon is one of the most common elements around - net cost for fabrication can trend downwards to almost zero. Disks are always going to need motors, rare earth magnets and so on.

History is full of brave people saying things like that. Eg LCDs will never replace CRTs. DVD will never replace VCRs. The car will never replace horses. This "fire" thing will never catch on.

Yet here we are. And there we will be ...

 

[tacobfm]

Well its kind of the balance between speed price and size. A pure SSD would be good however, I think Hybrid SSD's are the future

 

[agissi]

The question is, how long will it take for a 1TB to be affordable? Say like a hard drive is today - $65. Hybrids may take on a dominating presence if the nano-tech, or transisters if you will, cannot continue to diminish in physical size at the rate they are currently. A 1TB SSD will be affordable when the chips inside are the same in numbers as they are today but hold a higher density, ie. more space. For each chip to hold more space the transisters have to get smaller.. We're getting pretty small right now at 28 and 23 nanometers. Will we hit a wall? There are reasons behind why CPU voltages are getting lower and lower with each new generation. And they cant flip on and off any faster. Someone in the industry may be able to tell you. In my case my dad.

 

[soyobaby]

I would go for SSD for laptops for sure given the price now didn't make much different between SSD and HDD. No wonder Seagate is now going to private again.

 

[Afenix]

I'm really looking forward to these hybrid HDD's (Well I guess we can't call them HDD's anymore lol)
I would like to have both high speed, and big capacity in one single device!

 

[klepto12]

This comes down to one thing what consumers want full on speed but little space or lots of space with half the speed. I for one would rather have a hybrid drive for a laptop for more space overall but have the ssd for an OS drive on my desktop with a large drive as backup either way it still comes down to what the consumer wants in he end.

 

[Lokalaskurar]

If an Seagate-employee said "what the title said" to me, I would have been (close to) punching him (gentlemen don't punch ladies ) in the face! Seagate will drop out of business with this kind of thinking, eventually. How can you seriously not go for something less warmer, smaller, more reliant, more tolerable, more easy to handle and faster!? With time, I predict like many fellow Techspot-members, that SSD's will become cheap and available for everyone. And eventually replace HDD's alltogether.

Everybody thought that celluar technology was beyond Stan McNormalguy's reach, but just look at where we are now... Why doesn't Seagate see the opportunities? Think outside the drive for a change?

 

[Guest]

Traditional HDDs are still going to be cheaper to manufacture. Notebooks are designed for its portability. The key focus with notebooks should be portability rather than its performance. What's the point of paying a premium on something that is not optimized for performance?

 

[Night Hacker]

I still think SSDs are the future. Once capacity increases and price drops you'll see more and more people buy them. I just love the idea of them and want to pick one up myself. I am sure operating systems will follow suit. BUT, I can see hybrids being popular in the interim.

Remember CD Writers? They thought they would be too expensive and therefore CD piracy wouldn't be an issue. Times change don't they?

 

[Guest]

I think Steve Jobs is right. He was right when showed Sony what a walk man was. He was right with introducing the Telco industry with decent hardware rather than gimmicks disposable phones. He was right when they developed the windows User interface and wouldn't allow clones because as we know many of the issues come from 3rd parties.

I was right when I purchased many thousands of dollars of Apple stock when it was $20.00/share.
I was right when I sold that for $300/share.
My wife was right when she says I walk with a pimp in my gait.

Who needs storage?
P.S Amazon soon will give us a happy home for all our content. We just tether our devices, shucks we'll even have choices in content providers.

We may even be content providers. What a wonderful world,too bad it's not going to last. shucks

 

[dotGore]

Apple = Propaganda

 

[AmanEatingChair]

Momentus XT HD segates hybrid is a good idea. I think apple is following it's thinking and with more SSD built into the HDDs I think it could be a reasonable priced yet great upgrade in the future for the mid price ranged users. Currently many people just can't afford the SSDs as they are about $2 per GB. That price hopefully will drop quickly and everyone can just get the quicker and cooler SDDs, which are the future.

 

[jazboy]

I like SSD, I know its reliable, will run longer etc. But I still agree with seagate about hybrid hard drive. Its more than 3 years when first SSD comes but still price hasn't been significantly came down. I think most of computer user need a cost-effective hard drive, which also come up with reliability. For me hard drive speed is not much significant as its cost. So from my point of view seagate is right.

 

[highlander84]

I think we still need the physical disk. Their capacity is amazing. SSD's may have the speed... But that's not everything. You really need both. Bulk storage doesn't need to be insanely fast. Faster the better but at what price?

 

[Per Hansson]

For the first time I find myself in agreement with Steve Jobs.
SSD's are the future, not hybrid drives...

Disclaimer; I own a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB drive

 

[citac]

how can anyone be RIGHT, different hard drives are going to be better for different situations, im not going to buy a full SSD for my desktop when i can just get a hybrid that helps boot computer a little quicker etc etc etc then just use the rest like you usually do for porn and games.

 

[frodough]

it's not about comparing apples to oranges, it's all about the taste. i dont care what others like just because, to me, performance matters most in this new age tech world.

 

[oasis789]

its all about cost and value. if i need space and i dont game, im going for a HDD. if i game and can have secondary drives for storage, ill get a good quality, small SSD.

 

[Jibberish18]

Honestly I think a well designed hybrid would be good enough for MOST people out there. For all the others, an SSD Drive would do.

 

[topcoach]

I have experienced several HDD crashes. An SSD would be far more reliable.

 

[kazarm]

A hybrid drive cannot beat a dedicated flash drive as a system drive.
In my opinion it should be possible to configure the partitions on the hybrid drive as either pure flash or hybrid. The flash memory not used in the flash partition could then be used to accelerate the hybrid part.

 

[medguydan]

Jobs is probably right in the long term. Fast, no moving parts, cheap materials - SSD will be the future...someday. Right now the price point, I think most people can agree, is the limiting factor. For seagate to say that a faster tech (in a society where ppl are all about having things now) won't beat out platter drives in the future is ridiculous. For a desktop where space isn't at a premium, get a small SSD for your OS and a few applications and a few HDDs for photos, music, vids, etc.
However, apple's (read Jobs') rejection of certain tech bc it won't kowtow to him is pure narcissism: blu-ray player for the mac mini plz!!!

 

[stwongbad85]

SSD has problems, but once Apple starts ordering them in huge volume and all the other HD makers get on board, all those bugs will be fixed. It will follow the same progression HDD of lower prices and bigger capacities. I am actually trying ot wait out till next year to buy a new laptop when usb 3 and larger SSDs are standard laptop features.

 

[ruzveh]

I actually wound mind taking more time to load BIOS & OS. But certainly mind paying premium on SSD. I have a question. What happen to a 10TB HDD which hitachi has devoloped few months back?