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Feb 22 2006

Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX), the world's leading manufacturer of Consumer Electronics (CE) hard drives, today announced the newest member of its diverse CE product portfolio, the Seagate ST1.3 Series 12GB 1-inch hard drive.

With a footprint 23% smaller, 50% more storage capacity, and 30% less power consumption than Seagate's current 1-inch hard drive, the ST1.3 Series also offers a new optional drop sensor for increased robustness, delivering the features most requested by handheld device manufacturers. The ST1.3 Series hard drive is Seagate's second hard drive with perpendicular recording and the company's first drive utilizing perpendicular technology in the 1-inch category.

"As the demand for portable digital music and video grows, mobile device manufacturers will need ample storage capacities," said John Rydning, IDC's research manager for Hard Disk Drives. "Small form factor drives such as Seagate's ST1.3 provide a cost effective, high capacity storage solution for these device manufacturers compared to other storage alternatives."

By offering a whopping 12GB of storage in a smaller footprint, the ST1.3 Series hard drive is a powerful solution for increasingly sophisticated media devices such as digital audio players, portable media players, and mobile phones. According to IDC, the worldwide mobile phone market is expected to grow 7% in 2006 to 857.9 million units. IDC forecasts that the worldwide converged mobile device market will reach 181 million units by the end of 2009[1] and worldwide portable multimedia player shipments are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 95% between 2005-2009[2].

"Portable, on-demand video is driving the next wave of revenue opportunity for the mobile phone and entertainment communities. As consumer adoption drives the demand for the availability of video content anytime and anywhere, the need for tiny, high capacity hard drives becomes more apparent," said Brodie Keast, Seagate senior vice president and general manager of Consumer Electronics. "Mobile phone and handheld entertainment device makers need a storage partner that can ensure consistent and reliable supply and offer high-capacity storage options. Seagate delivers a complete business and technology partnership that enables growth in this highly competitive market segment."

The new ST1.3 Series hard drive delivers new features specifically targeted at mobile media consumers. The drive's new size, 40x30x5 mm, allows for more streamlined media players product designs and fits nicely into current clamshell and candy-bar style mobile handsets. As part of its G-Force Protection feature set enabling skip-free, reliable media storage and playback, Seagate also includes an optional drop sensor. This will increase operational shock resistance 33% up to 2000Gs, enabling the drive to survive a 1.5-meter drop onto hard concrete or ceramic surfaces when properly mounted in a handheld device. The ST1.3 Series hard drive also delivers 30% greater power efficiency than previous models, enabling system designers and manufacturers greater choice in power supplies and system power-on hours. Additionally, Seagate's unique Design Service Centers (DSC) provide dedicated design and integration support to help mobile device designers and manufacturers create innovative new consumer electronics products. DSC offers a variety of testing, integration and mechanical analysis services, to help customers design, innovate and deliver a new world of hard drive-capable entertainment.

RunOn Technology: Reliability Under High-Motion Conditions

People often bring their mobile phones, PDAs and PMPs with them when walking, running or during other physical activities. Seagate's ST1.3 Series differs from other hard drives because it is designed to compensate for the issues caused by such high-motion activities. The drive incorporates Seagate RunOn technology, which enables the drive to automatically keep the read heads on track while the device is in motion. Consequently, the RunOn technology can increase the reliability - and customer satisfaction - of a handheld consumer electronics device.

G-Force Protection: Designed to Protect Against Everyday Bumps

When many hard drive-based devices face the trauma of everyday use, the read/write heads remain over the media and a hard drop could lead to a microscopic dent on the internal components and can suffer additional damage if it's still running when the device is dropped. Seagate understands that accidents can happen with handheld gadgets, and has built the ST1.3 Series hard drive with G-Force Protection, which protects the hard drive against shock by sensing when the system is in a free-fall situation, moving the heads off the platter, and turning the motor off - all within 3/10 of a second. Thus, during the day-to-day mishaps of using your favorite portable device, no parts make contact with each other inside the drive.

G-Force Protection makes any handheld device using the ST1.3 Series hard drive more robust and more reliable.

Seagate offers the broadest range of CE hard drives and serves the entire spectrum of applications driving the emerging "terabyte life" - from automobile navigation and entertainment, to home theater, handheld audio, video, communications and computing. As the only hard drive company offering products for nearly every hard drive application, Seagate provides the global scale, supply and support that CE device makers need.

Based on direct customer input at its CE Design Service Centers, Seagate develops drives to deliver the features CE manufacturers ask for. Seagate's unique Advanced Manufacturing capabilities give customers flexibility because our manufacturing can quickly adapt to their requirements. Seagate CE engineers are ready to help solve integration issues at the company's unique Design Service Centers. Seagate is the only hard drive company to provide CE manufacturers with a comprehensive partnership: products, technology and services.

The Seagate ST1.3 Series will begin shipping in the third calendar quarter of 2006.

About Seagate

Seagate is the worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and marketing of hard disc drives, providing products for a wide-range of Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, and Consumer Electronics applications. Seagate's business model leverages technology leadership and world-class manufacturing to deliver industry-leading innovation and quality to its global customers, and to be the low cost producer in all markets in which it participates. The company is committed to providing award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world's growing demand for information storage. Seagate was named 2006 Company of the Year by Forbes Magazine. Seagate can be found around the globe and at www.seagate.com.

Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Wave logo are U.S. registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC. ST1.3 Series, RunOn Technology, and G-Force Protection are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. One gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity. Accessible capacity may vary depending on operating environment and formatting. Quantitative usage examples for various applications are for illustrative purposes. Actual quantities will vary based on various factors, including file size, file format, features and application software.