Storage company Seagate Technology Inc has formed a new business unit to develop storage products targeted at the consumer electronics and information appliance markets. Seagate has previously stated that it was interested in the nascent market of information appliances (CI No 3,618) – small wireless devices that connect to the internet – but the setting up of the Consumer Solutions group is the first definite step that the firm has taken in the market.
Phil Montero, senior manager of business communications at the Scotts Valley, California-based company says the first products to emerge from the group will be ‘instant replay’ boxes to enable the user to record audio or visual data routed through set-top boxes. In the long term, the unit will develop devices for home networks. Montero said it is currently examining the various different home network systems such as Microsoft Corp’s Plug ‘n’ Play architecture, Sun Microsystem’s Jini technology and the Havi system pioneered by Sony Corp and others. It is also looking into developing micro disk drives for PDAs and Flash memory-based storage for consumer devices. Seagate already has an investment in Flash memory provider SanDisk Corp.
