HDD design competition seeks new ideas

The winning design from Toshiba's Hard Disk Drive Revolution Competition will be considered for production by one of Toshiba Europe's manufacturing partners.

The Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division Hard Disk Drive Revolution Competition offers designers and design students the chance to submit concept designs based on Toshiba's world record breaking 0.85in hard drive, with a view to the winning design being considered for production by one of Toshiba Europe's manufacturing partners.

The focus of the competition is not to design a product for Toshiba.

The 0.85in hard disk drive is just to be used as a key component of the design.

All designs remain the copyright of the designer unless chosen as the winning design.

The winning designers will receive payment for ownership of the copyright and design IP.

The concept designs will be judged by a panel of executives from some of the world's leading IT and consumer brands based on their real-world applications, form, aesthetics and marketability.

The judging panel currently consists of Henri Crohas, CEO Archos; Dick Hoogerdijk, President and CEO Freecom; UK design agency Seymour Powell; Italian consumer electronics firm Flybook; German designer Rainer Bohl, who has worked for both BMW and Ford; and Chantal Hamaide, Editor of leading French design magazine Intramuros.

The miniature drive, just the sise of a one pound sterling coin, is the first hard drive to achieve multi-gigabyte data storage at a sub-one-inch size.

It offers the perfect solution for highly portable, high performance mobile devices where storage technologies play a key role in supporting next generation multimedia applications.

"The overwhelming response to the competition shows a real shift in the marketplace".

"Consumers are beginning to get excited about how hard drive technology can enhance their lives and the success of HDD based mp3 players is testament to this", explained Martin Larsson, General Manager, Toshiba Europe Storage Device Division.

"We're really looking forward to reviewing the submitted designs and seeing how designers across the world interpret the potential for this technology in the marketplace".

"Product design has always been core to making a technology successful", said Henri Crohas, CEO Archos.

"This competition offers established and emerging designers the perfect opportunity to drive innovation through design".

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