14 DAY TRIAL // HGST, which used to be known as Hitachi Global Storage Technology but is now a division of Western Digital, went on record in regard to the ultrabook market and the type of storage it should use.
Digitimes has provided what is supposedly the official view held by HGST regarding the worldwide ultrabook market.
We should preface by saying that we can't perfectly tell how much of it is fact and how much is just optimism talking.
HGST seems to think that Ultrabooks depend on mixed storage in order to reach lower prices and become more popular.
It even said that manufacturers have been seeking more hybrid HDDs (HDDs with integrated NAND) and SSD caching setups (an HDD and an SSD working together).
We agree that pure SSD configurations are more expensive than the alternatives, but we also have to say that most ultrabooks we wrote about use them anyway. The ones equipped with hybrid HDDs or normal HDDs are few in comparison.
Nevertheless, Lenny Sharp, director of product marketing for mobile & desktop HDD, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), is convinced that mixed storage will win in the end.
"Mixed storage solutions may be positioned as a substitute in transition, but I think such solutions will become mainstream choices for ultrabook PCs in the future." Sharp said
That SSDs will be substituted for HDDs in ultrabooks is something HDD makers have been saying since last year. There isn't much to imply that the world really moved much in that direction though, regardless of what HGST says.
There is, of course, the possibility that the predictions will come to pass, that HDDs will advance through leaps and bounds, but we will withhold judgment because of the following: Intel might finally reduce its ULV CPU price, so cost-saving changes to the storage type will become a less immediate concern. SSDs are getting cheaper by the month too, even if not by overmuch.