DJN: DJ Fujitsu To Sell Japan's 1st Flash-Drive Laptops - Nikkei (Dow Jones 10/10 13:39:54)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Fujitsu Ltd. (6702.TO) plans to release for the first time in Japan laptop computers that use flash memory instead of a hard disk drive, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Wednesday morning edition. Flash memory is lighter, more shock resistant and consumes less power than hard disk drives, the most common data storage medium for personal computers.
Japan's second-largest PC manufacturer intends to introduce this month two laptop models that feature up to 32GB of flash as nonvolatile memory, with shipments to start in November. The products will weigh 75 grams, or about 6%, lighter than comparable products with hard drives, and they will also run about 30 minutes longer because flash memory doesn't have moving parts.
The new products are expected to start at the mid-Y200,000 range, about Y70,000 to Y80,000 more than hard drive models. But Fujitsu anticipates corporate demand from those whose jobs require portable computer capability, such as sales personnel.
The firm will consider making available models that use flash memory instead of hard drives for all small laptops designed for business use. Corporate-use models account for more than half of its domestic PC shipments.
Fujitsu decided to use flash memory in business-use laptops because prices for large orders of leading flash products are now about half of what they were in the October-December quarter of last year. Flash memory is increasingly being used in digital cameras and portable music players. Other companies, including Sony Corp. (6758.TO), released PCs that use flash memory instead of hard disk drives this summer, but these were limited efforts. For example, products shaped like personal digital assistants were sold exclusively online.
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October 26, Bear Stearns Presents...
Industry Perspectives: "Flash Memory Vs. Hard Disk Drive: Friends Or Foes?"
Are increasing densities of flash memory (NAND) a critical challenge to hard disk drives (HDD)? Can the two technologies co-exist? How and where? Where do "hybrid disk drives" (i.e., flash combined with HDD) fit in? What are the pricing and technology trade-offs? As highlighted by Fujitsu's recent planned introduction of a first NAND-based notebook PC in Japan (as a HDD replacement) -- see story attached-- and the shift by Apple between HDD and flash memory in its iPod, Bear Stearns is hosting a conference call consisting of industry experts from Toshiba HDD, Micron Technology and market researcher IDC to address these and other questions and review the investment implications/dynamics of two competing and complementary technologies: flash memory (NAND) and hard disk drives (HDDs). |
