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Microdrive Technology Rebounds Thanks to iPod Mini

Posted by timothy on from the 4-gigs-for-cheap dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A few years ago Richard Menta over at MP3 Newswire did a lengthy review on the IBM Microdrive and declared it would significantly alter the MP3 portable market if IBM did one thing - drop the price. That never happened and it prompted Menta last year to declare the iPod's more cost effective Toshiba drive made it moot and he put the Microdrive on his 2002 MP3 loser list. Since then the drive technology was acquired by Hitachi who convinced to Apple to use it for the iPod Mini. The Mini's recent success prompted Menta to revisit his previous write-off. Interesting view of the up and down travils of any technology and how each change can have dramatic effect on its success and failure."

33 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Pretty annoying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I just bought a 4 GB Microdrive on eBay for $299, before running across this article that explains how to get a 4 GB Microdrive for $50 less than the going eBay price by buying and taking apart an iPod Mini.

    Apparently all of the 4 GB Microdrives on eBay were obtained precisely this way.... which may explain why the iPod Mini has sold out everywhere despite being a relatively-bad deal compared to the 15 GB model. Hitachi is clearly selling these drives to Apple at or near a loss, for whatever strange reason.

    1. Re:Pretty annoying by BrookHarty · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Also you can pick up a 4gb Nomad for 199, and rip out the microdrive also. Ipod mini isnt the only one using the 4GB microdrives that sell for 400+ dollars retail.

    2. Re:Pretty annoying by TheKidWho · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually they were taking the hard drives out of the Muvo2 not the ipod mini.

    3. Re:Pretty annoying by Chmarr · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except that it is being reported that Apple has had the firmware in the microdrive changed so that you CAN'T use it as a standard compact-flash type drive.

      If you want to do that... stick with the MuVo2.

    4. Re:Pretty annoying by aardvarko · · Score: 5, Informative

      The seller more likely obtained it from a Creative MuVo, as the Hitachi drive in the iPod is missing some aspect of the standard IDE controller used in most CompactFlash cards and drives.

    5. Re:Pretty annoying by SpookyFish · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I hardly think that a significant percentage of the 100k+ iPMinis were purchased for that reason.

      The Mini isn't a bad deal in any way for people who want one that is mini -- and the size DOES make a difference to plenty of people. 4G is still a hell of a lot of music, for "typical" people and/or those willing to prune what they put on the iPod to songs they'll ever actually listen to.

      I highly doubt Hitachi is selling them at a loss -- Apple is buying with at least 100k unit volume commitments. I bet they haven't even sold 100k total to retail channels! I am sure, however, they wish they'd protected against this, to keep the margins on standalone retail sales high.

    6. Re:Pretty annoying by aardvarko · · Score: 5, Informative

      Professional photographers tend to use either:

      512MB Lexar CFs, or
      1GB MicroDrives.
      (Or film. ;-)

      Larger flash cards offer drastically diminishing return, making it harder to carry around ten or twenty of them.

      MicroDrive users tend to be either desperate for storage or more careful with their cameras (as they aren't as shock-proof). (You won't see many pho/journs with a MicroDrive.)

      For the existing MicroDrive users, this 4GB "hack" is a huge boon - given that many current cameras write 10-20MB photographs (in RAW format), the ability to take more than fifty photos between card changes is a bit of a nicety. This likely won't impact current flash card users, though, as the 4GBs are just as damage-prone as the 1GBs.

    7. Re:Pretty annoying by gordguide · · Score: 5, Informative

      " ... Apple at or near a loss, for whatever strange reason. ..."

      Hitachi is making money off the drives they sell to Apple, in the quantities Apple is buying. It's called manufacturing.

      The "part" you bought cost more in single, packaged, retail distribution channels just like any other part does; it's called retail.

      Wanna buy a new car? Buy it in single parts, forget about the labour (we'll assume it's free) and you will have spent who-knows how many times more than a showroom example when you're done.

      Want to manufacture cars? Buy it in quantity parts, factor in the labor, and it will still be cheaper than your one-off.

      The wholesaler's markup on parts (let alone the retail markup) is about the same as a new car dealer's gross markup. Apple isn't even paying a wholesaler, but you did.

      Unlike the original iPod (where Hitachi gave Apple a 1-year exclusive to the 5GB & later larger HDs, from spring 2001 to spring 2002, so that other manufacturers couldn't buy it initially and all prices were lower 1 year later than Apple paid at first in quantity) you can actually buy a 4GB drive retail; pretty much simultaneously with the introduction of the iPod mini.

      So, instead of Apple paying down the cost to ramp up production by itself, like it did with the original iPod's drive, you just paid for some of it. By the way, thanks from all of us.

      Technical analysis of the original iPod (reports cost thousands, I saw them at work) reveal Apple is pricing the iPod twice as low as normal manufacturing practice in electronics (parts cost is just over 50% of retail, compared to the 20~25% typical in consumer electronics); perhaps you're just a victim of Apple pricing lower than the norm in the industry. (I know it sounds crazy, but that's what the data reveals).

    8. Re:Pretty annoying by Cecil · · Score: 4, Informative

      -1, Blatantly Incorrect

      s/iPod Mini/Creative Labs MuVo^2/g -- to get the correct version of the parent comment.

      iPod Minis contain a different version of the Hitachi 4GB Microdrive. In the iPod Mini, the ability for the card to do CF+ has been disabled, it operates only in IDE mode -- making it useless for digital cameras and most other things one would want a Microdrive for. The MuVo has the standard consumer model of the Microdrive with working CF+ support. It has been tested to work properly in the Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel) among other cameras.

      You can see whether a drive is from the MuVo or the iPod Mini because the iPod Mini version is barcoded and serial numbered on the label, while the MuVo version is just an empty white label.

      More info here.

      --
      Random and weird software I've written.
    9. Re:Pretty annoying by GlassHeart · · Score: 4, Informative
      which may explain why the iPod Mini has sold out everywhere despite being a relatively-bad deal compared to the 15 GB model.

      Entering "microdrive 4gb" in eBay gets me 64 hits. Apple announced that it has over 100,000 pre-orders for the iPod Mini. Even if every single one of those was stripped from an iPod Mini (not likely) and Apple only produced enough to fulfill pre-orders (not likely), that would account for 0.06% of its sales.

      Please just accept that your criteria for what makes a good deal may not be shared by... hundreds of thousands of other people.

  2. Hrmm by TheKidWho · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hrmm... this got me thinking... Is it possible to replace the 4gb iPod Mini HD with one of those new 8gb CF cards?

    1. Re:Hrmm by aardvarko · · Score: 5, Funny

      iPod Mini (silver): $249
      Lexar 8GB CompactFlash: $3000 [1]
      Case of Zima: $24
      The look on your face after it's stolen from your messenger bag: Priceless


      [1]: http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/stor y_934.html

  3. Versus "normal" hard drive based mp3 players? by dnobel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does anybody know if these smaller microdrive based mp3 players are less prone to damage due to physical shock versus an ipod or nomad zen like device?

    1. Re:Versus "normal" hard drive based mp3 players? by CAlworth1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      >>I have never heard of anyone breaking an iPod by jogging with it.

      Nor have I, and I have owned two, and know probably 20 to 30 people with them, and have never heard of any hard drive failures. Battery problems, perhaps, but these are regular computer users with very little idea about what they should expect from a product, so they keep buying. Short of near-catastrophic failure, they aren't going to quit using them, or quit suggesting them any time soon I think.

  4. Who convinced who? by teamhasnoi · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ...was acquired by Hitachi who convinced to Apple to use it for the iPod Mini.

    Is it: ..was acquired by Hitachi who convinced Apple to use it for the iPod Mini.

    or

    was acquired by Hitachi who was convinced by Apple to use it for the iPod Mini.

    Editors should be clearing this up, rather than adding 11 more submissions to the 'Games' catagory. C'mon Timothy - stop playing UT2004 for just a second.

  5. How crash resistant are microdrives? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm always wondering if these drives can experience crashing or data corruption if it gets hit hard while it's running? Is it really a spinning hard drive or is it something else?

    1. Re:How crash resistant are microdrives? by aardvarko · · Score: 4, Informative

      Safer than a desktop HDD. The tiny platters don't move quite as much when jolted (edges of the platter being much closer to the axis than with desktop drives), and they tend to spin down a lot more frequently than desktop drives. Still not as "safe" as a regular ol' flash card...

    2. Re:How crash resistant are microdrives? by Tyrell+Hawthorne · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, it is just a very small hard drive. Have a look at this picture.

      As for the sturdiness, I can say that I've had no problems with mine for the few years I've had it. I've taken a few thousand pictures with it, but I haven't dropped the camera when it was reading or writing to it. However, according to what I've read they seem to be good in this aspect. It isn't solid state, so it's not as rugged as that, but you don't have to worry too much about it in normal conditions.

  6. Think outside the square by powerpuffgirls · · Score: 5, Insightful

    MicroDrive won't be successful as a storage because nobody really needs to carry that much data around. When iPod comes in, it changed the use of such device, and people do have needs to carry that much of music around.

    Similar to Acer's latest monsterous laptop, which is so heavy and short of battery life. Most people said it is too heavy and short-life to be carried around, but in reality this laptop is not designed for you to carry around and use it in pubs, cafe or buses, instead it is for people to move from point A to point B, and station it on a desk again. This immediately changes its intended use and market.

    1. Re:Think outside the square by unfortunateson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand, the current generation of pro-level (11+ megapixel range) digital cameras take 35MB raw-mode photos. A 4GB Microdrive becomes indispensible.

      A couple of the newest MP3 jukeboxes have 20GB and firewire for upload/download of not-neccessarily-music files and are even better.

      --
      Design for Use, not Construction!
    2. Re:Think outside the square by THotze · · Score: 4, Informative
      You know, I get what you're saying, and to a certian extent, I agree with you. Just making a really big drive doesn't mean that there will be a good use for it. Originally, IIRC, IBM was trying to get people to shove those in PDAs - which would be more storage than most PDA users need(ed), and it'd suddenly make PDAs a lot bigger, a lot heavier, and probably somewhat slower, because its harder to manage a 1GB volume than 64MB of RAM.

      Having said that, I don't think it's like the Acer luggable. For one thing, the IBM Microdrive took something that was already successful - smaller (2.5") hard drives, and made them a LOT smaller. For another, it sounds like the infamous (if fake) "640K ought to be enough for anybody" comment. Now, admitadly, flash storage is better than anything with moving parts for a bunch of reasons. But saying that there weren't uses at that time for that much data just isn't true - digital cameras were one emerging market, sub-sublaptops were another, and I tihkn that something LIKE the iPod (basically, using it as an MP3 player, not necessarily as slick as a real iPod) is more of a natural use of the technology than something that incidentally "happened."

      It takes a long time from the invention of a technology to the time that it becomes widely used or practical - its a learning curve. That's why there are all sorts of web-based services around now that all the technical foundations were there for in 1998 - because once the tools are available, it takes some time for inventors and idea people to realize it and understand how to best use them.

      I think that if the microdrives can stay bigger (in storage space) than compact flash at a similar price point, which I thikn they will over the next 5 years, you'll start seeing more and more of them.

  7. IBM Storage Tech in Mini-ipods? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well I'm sure the RIAA will love the self-destructive nature of those drives

  8. PDAs? by fastdecade · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With all this high storage for MP3s, why don't PDAs come with built-in 5 or 10GB?

    Yes battery life suffers, but we already have colour screens and fast processors - the days of plugging in the palm every month or so are gone, and many users are used to recharging on a daily basis.

    It would be nice to fill the PDA with work docs, technical docs, encyclopaedias, useful apps, and a complete backup image - not to mention all the music!

    1. Re:PDAs? by Fiveeight · · Score: 5, Informative

      I know someone who used a 1 gig microdrive as storage for their Toshiba PocketPC. Reduced the battery life by 50% if you used the disc much, and it got very hot. The big storage capacity was nice, but it wasn't a very effective tradeoff. Bigger CF cards are probably a better solution for most people unless the 4+ gig drives use a lot less power.

    2. Re:PDAs? by .com+b4+.storm · · Score: 4, Informative

      the days of plugging in the palm every month or so are gone, and many users are used to recharging on a daily basis.

      Funny, I have a Palm Zire (nice bright color display) that I use heavily on a daily basis, with sounds and such turned on. I also make use of the built-in camera once in a while when I'm in a pinch. I only have to charge it once every month or so, sometimes once every two months if my usage is not very heavy for a while. So what's this about recharging on a daily basis again?

      --
      "Wow, you're like some kind of superhero able to ward off happiness and success at every turn."
      -- Ryan Stiles
  9. The hard drive spins, shortly by MacFury · · Score: 4, Informative
    The hard drive spins for a brief period of time to load the next song into the iPods 32MB memory. From there, all reads are done from the 32MB RAM.

    The iPod also attempts to cache the next and previous songs if enough RAM exsists. If you hit the next song button really quickly you can hear the hard drive spin up and locate the song.

  10. Re:high price by John+Harrison · · Score: 4, Interesting
    How far down the road do you think it is? There are 8GB CF cards out there, but you have to pay through the nose for them for now. In 18 months what do you think they will cost? 512MB CF cards (and Microdrives for that matter) used to be expensive, now people pick them up without much thought.

    4 GB CF cards will be cheap sooner than you think.

    --
    Lasers Controlled Games!
  11. Sinclair Microdrive from the 80s by axolotl_farmer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anyone remember the Sinclair Microdrive?

    Sir Clive Sinclair, inventor of the ZX81 and Spectrum line of computers did not believe disc drives had a future. He invented the microdrive. Cheap, fast and with low power demands.

    The microdrive had small cartridges with a tape loop running inside. The Spectrum version held ~100 k or so of data. They were built into the Sinclair Ql, and was available as periphals for Spectrum (Timex in the US).

    It was very soon forgotten except by us old Spectrum afficionados!

  12. SCO starts selling iPod Mini licenses by azuroff · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the press release:

    "IBM had access to the SysV source code. IBM also developed the MicroDrive. Therefore, the MicroDrive is obviously a derivative product, and we believe that all iPod Mini owners now owe us $699."

  13. A new floppy drive by cybermint · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In this day and age, where computers are so widely used, and our data integrity is vital, we still rely on data storage methods that use moving parts. Nothing lasts forever, but magnetic media always has a nasty habit of failing much sooner, mainly because it still relies on a system vulnerable to friction. Now microdrive technology is rebounding? When is this dinosaur going to die!? Then again, maybe that's the reason it's still around. If it didn't fail, we wouldn't have to buy a new one.

  14. Wrong sir, wrong!! by cflorio · · Score: 4, Informative
    I have been following this very closely, and this is highly documented on dpreview. The microdrives In the Ipod Mini are NOT The same ones as are retail or in the muvo2.

    The ones out of the Ipod Mini have a very large barcode and so far there has not been a single documented case of that microdrive working in any digital camera anywhere.

    If you can provide a link to instructions on how to get the ipod mini's microdrive to work in other devices, you will be my new best friend!

  15. "Thanks" to iPod? by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps the reason Microdrives fell out of favor wasn't just the price point. With the exception of raw data transfer speed, solid state Flash memory is superior in every way. Portable devices are battery constrained, subjected to extraordinarily rough treatment and great temperature extremes. Flash memory is many times better than MicroDrive in all those critical areas.

    Finally, Microdrives are fading away because flash memory capacities have been increasing as their cost decreases (in addition to the hardware advantages). All we are seeing here with the iPod Microdrives is a temporary reduction in cost-per-byte over flash memory. This artificial bubble will not last, and flash memory will (continue to) dominate in the long run.

    Dan East

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  16. Re:It's not the firmware. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
    It's the filesystem, not the firmware. The iPods apparently use an exotic, but the problem is easily fixed. I don't know if it's easily un-fixed, but if you're going to tear open an iPod for the contents, you probably don't care about that much either way.

    So, anyway, I don't have the URL handy, but the word is that once you reformat those things they work correctly; it wuold obviously not be cost-effective for Apple to bump production costs by insisting that Hitachi munge their firmware, or to waste development time and money doing it themselves.
    I don't believe anyone has succesfully used one in a camera yet. The story I heard is that the iPod drives are locked in True-IDE mode. Compactflash cards can operate in three modes: (1) PC-Card IO (for modems, ethernet, etc), (2) PC-Card Memory, (3) True-IDE. As you can guess, in the last mode it's just an IDE drive (with a simple pin-adapter). All normal CF memory cards can operate in mode (2) and (3), and I guess most camera's interface with the card in mode (2). If the iPod drive only supports mode (3), it can be formatted to work with a PC but not in a camera.