Seagate announces 500GB Ultra Mobile hard drive for Android tablets

Seagate is looking to give your Android tablet more room for your apps, vids and pictures. How does 500GB on your slate sound?

Seagate already produces 5mm hard drives for the super-skinny laptop market and now they’re coming to to Android tablets through the company’s new Ultra Mobile HDD.

The 500GB disk takes the existing 5mm design and squeezes in a speedy 8GB flash cache, a tougher enclosure and firmware that improves both the energy consumption and shock tolerance.

“Coupling an ultra-thin, high-capacity HDD with software designed to optimize integration into tablets at a value-add price has allowed us to deliver a truly ground-breaking solution, enabling our partners to reimagine the mobile device,” said Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate.

This should mean that the Ultra Mobile HDD gives Android slates the capacity of a laptop drive without giving up the speed or resilience of flash storage.

“When comparing side by side a tablet and a portable PC, today’s tablets are trading off storage capacity in order to realize a thin and light form factor device and long battery life,” noted John Rydning, IDC’s research vice president for hard disk drives and semiconductors. “Seagate’s new Mobile Enablement Kit will bring PC-like storage capacity to future thin and light tablet designs, and position Seagate as a potential storage solutions provider to the fast-growing tablet market.”

All we have to do is wait for more details such as who’ll be putting them in their tablets and when they’ll be available.

Sooner rather than later, hopefully.