Seagate keeps Maxtor brand!

[Dashken]

Seagate yesterday announced the Maxtor brand would live on with new products. Maxtor’s acquisition by Seagate was finalized last May and left the future of Maxtor branded drives uncertain. Instead of retiring the Maxtor brand, Seagate has decided to take the brand off life support and restructure it as a new value brand. The new dual branding strategy will position Seagate branded models in the high end while Maxtor drives are positioned towards the more value conscious customer.

There will be very little product differentiation between the two brands. Maxtor branded hard drives will be based on Seagate models, though newer technology on Seagate drives will take a little longer to trickle down to Maxtor products. Seagate branded drives will retain its longer five-year warranty whereas Maxtor branded hard drives will only have a three-year warranty.

Seagate also announced a refresh of Maxtor’s current product lineup in addition to the dual branding strategy. New Maxtor products include a refreshed DiamondMax 20, 21 and MobileMax products. Maxtor’s latest DiamondMax 20 is based on Seagate’s Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive that features perpendicular disc platters for increased platter density. Due to Maxtor being a value brand, DiamondMax 20 drives will only be offered in sizes up to 320GB.

The new Maxtor MobileMax drives will be Maxtor’s first-ever notebook hard drives. MobileMax drives will be available in capacities up to 80GB and spin at 5400RPM. Maxtor expects mainstream and white book systems to feature MobileMax drives.

There’s no mention when Seagate-based Maxtor DiamondMax and MobileMax products will be available, though it shouldn’t be too long.

Source: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4398