Cornice unveils 4GB harddrive for mobiles

Cornice, the hardware manufacturer, has launched a 4GB disk drive, which at 2.5cm in size will easily fit into mobile phones, GPRS devices or very small MP3 devices.

The new Storage Element uses an innovative architecture which lowers cost by using only one side of the disk for storage and removing surplus components. This reduces space, weight and complexity.

The Storage Element also includes Crash Guard II, a set of features designed to improve reliability –

In a statement, Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, said “The market is demanding increasing capability in ever smaller devices. The ideal capacity for most of these devices, today, is 4GB because it provides the best balance between capacity and manageability.”

Manufacturers developing handsets to incorporate hard drives include Samsung, which launched a smart phone with a 1.5GB hard drive late last year.

The 4GB SE with Crash Guard II technology will be available in July 2005. It will be priced at $65 (£37) per unit in quantities of 10,000.