Hybrid hard drives stalled by software, firm says

Market research firm Objective Analysis says that PC users who are waiting for a technology to speed boot times are going to have to wait longer as hybrid hard drives are not yet ready for prime time.

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 12/24/2007

The highly-promoted hybrid hard drive will not make a big splash in 2008, according to Los Gatos, Calif.-based market research firm Objective Analysis, but once all the kinks are ironed out, hybrid drives and their counterparts should sweep the market.

Analyst Jim Handy said, “Unfortunately, the hardware is ready but the software support is weak. Hybrid drives will have to wait for better support to justify their small additional cost.”

Hybrid Hard Drive Shipments (in millions of units)

Hybrid drives are also expected to threaten the solid-state drive (SSD) market, which memory giants Micron   and Toshiba recently entered, but neither technology is likely to see much acceptance until the second half of 2008 or later, the firm concluded.


For more on hybrid hard drives, see:

Solid-state storage: Seemingly no end to capacity and cost improvement trends

CES: Unclear prospects for hybrid, solid-state hard disks

For all EDN articles on hybrid hard drives, click here.