Data On Portable Devices -- Priceless

The true dollar value of a laptop, cell phone, PDA, or iPod isn't on the price tags attached to the devices, but the entertainment stored on them. For the typical member of Generation Y--18- to 24-year-olds who grew up with portable technologies--the value of the stored data approaches $2,200.

That's according to a study by KRC Research and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc., which found that American adults have an average of $1,135 worth of entertainment stored on devices such including laptops, MP3 players, DVRs, mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and portable movie players. (continued...)

This is good news for hard-disk makers, such as Hitachi. As the cost of digital storage becomes less than 10% of the content value, they reason, it's affordable enough for that content to be permanently retained--increasing the pervasiveness of hard disk drives. Hitachi, in a statement, says it believes high-capacity hard drives--unlike any other form of portable storage--have achieved that level of affordability for consumers.

Researchers, who surveyed 1,004 U.S. adults last month by telephone, say Americans' craving for more storage is rising as our lives become more nomadic. Among the study's findings:

--56% say that all the photos, music, movies, and video games they have stored is somewhat important, valuable, or priceless, with nearly one in five contending their digital content was priceless.

--One-third have 21 Gbytes of storage capacity or more, with 10% having 200 Gbytes or more.

--60% wish they had even more storage on their devices, with nearly one-third adding they'd wish they had 'so much storage that it was never an issue'

Researchers based the value of the stored data on industry average costs for songs, photos, movies, and video games.

Source InformationWeek:

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