IBM on Monday shrunk the price of its smallest hard drive, the Microdrive.
The Microdrive is a one-inch hard drive that acts as removable storage and fits into a CompactFlash Type II slot found in consumer gadgets such as digital cameras, MP3 players and handheld computers.
IBM cut prices by as much as 32 percent. The company lowered the price of its 1 GB drive to $379. The 512MB version now costs $259, and the 340MB version is $199. The cuts come as more manufacturers are beginning to support the Microdrive, IBM spokesman Michael Kuptz said.
"As acceptance of Microdrive by both consumers and device makers grows, we're able to continue with dramatic price cuts," Kuptz said. IBM has lowered the cost per megabyte by 50 percent in each of the past two years, he added.
The price moves come amid a battle for market share among memory formats, such as flash memory and hard drives.
News source: cnet.com
