The drives are intended to use WD-designed and -manufactured perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology to achieve 80GB-per-platter areal density.   

Says Kathy Pylarinos, Western Digital product specialist at distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC): "Hard drive manufacturers are pushed to deliver technology that reduces the form factor of hard drives yet increases capacity in order to keep up with demands of the mobile and consumer electronics (CE) markets.

The uptake of mobility coupled with the increase in sales of notebooks (which have recently overtaken the sales of PCs) is the driving force behind the emergence of the ever-increasing capacities of hard drives, packing more GBs than ever before."

This is supported by John Coyne, Western Digitals president and COO. He claims: "The rising use of mobile and consumer electronics (CE) devices with rich digital content such as video, music and photos, along with the continued expansion of corporate data generation, is driving the need for highly reliable, high-capacity hard drives of all form factors."