Seagate Denies Delay of Own-Brand SSDs: On-Track for Release in 2009

From X-bit Labs: Seagate Technology on Tuesday denied information that it would delay introduction of its solid-state drives (SSDs) till 2011 due to certain issues. The world’s largest maker of hard disk drives (HDDs) said that, as promised, it would deliver its first SSDs this calendar year.

“We remain committed to solid state development, and are on track to deliver our first enterprise SSD enterprise product shipments later this calendar year. We have increased our development focus on solid state, and will continue to invest the appropriate resources to be successful in this emerging storage market,” a spokesperson for Seagate said.

On Monday Kevin D Vassily, an analyst at investment bank Pacific Crest Securities, wrote in a note to clients that Seagate might delay introduction of its solid-state drives to 2011 because of the issues with relationships between LSI Corp. and Seagate. According to the analyst, Seagate would have to utilize SSD controllers from other makers, which would delay the release of actual products rather tangibly.

Early this year Seagate said that it would introduce enterprise-class solid-state drives in 2009, but did not provide any details. Seagate recently switched chief operating officer William Watkins to Stephen J. Luczo after Mr. Watkins failed to ensure strong positions of Seagate on the market of hard drives for mobile and portable applications, but also failed to start offering SSDs in the enterprise market segment at the dawn of solid-state drives on the mass market. In fact, it is one of the key goals of Mr. Luczo to enter the market of solid-state drives, however, it seems that it may take up to two years for the company to truly enter the SSD market

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