Seagate To End Production Of 7200rpm Laptop HDDs Later This Year

As further proof that solid state drives (SSDs) have become the storage drive of choice for ultrabooks and upper-tier laptops, Seagate Technology has revealed that 2013 will be the last year of production for its 7200 rpm notebook hard disk drives (HDDs). Seagate is presently one of the world’s biggest manufacturers and suppliers of hard disk drives. During a conversation with X-bit Labs, Seagate director of marketing and product management David Burks stated: “We are going to stop building our notebook 7200 rpm hard disk drives at the end of 2013.”

Ultrabook and high-end laptop users tend to be performance-oriented rather than economy-oriented. To this end, SSDs and SSD-hybrid drives have begun to dominate most manufacturers’ offerings. For the capacity/ battery life / price conscious, Seagate will continue to offer its 5400 rpm HDDs in the 2.5″ form factor. Even though production will end later this year, it will likely be quite some time before O.E.M. and channel supplies are depleted.