Company Designs My Book Family of External Storage with Appliance-like Simplicity for Today's Digital Consumers
LAKE FOREST, Calif. Mar. 8, 2006 Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it is shipping its newest line of external hard drive storage called My Book. Designed to be as easy to use as common household appliances for mainstream consumers, the first models of the My Book family are available now in capacities from 160 to 500 GB at select retail stores, online retailers and in the United States directly from WD at http://www.westerndigital.com.
A Welcome Household Addition
My Book's unique, iconic book-shaped enclosure stands vertically, leaving a tiny footprint and sitting naturally on desktops and bookshelves. It features vents around the book's page ends, keeping the hard drive inside cool for long-term reliability. WD conducted in-depth consumer research as part of the My Book design process, contributing to the simple, easy-to-use features of the product family.
The simple-to-use experience of My Book begins when owners first plug the device into their computer: it self-installs, requiring no CDs to insert or separate software to install. Organizing photos, music, video and all other content is made easy with included desktop, photo and search engine management software. My Book Premium Edition features a capacity gauge, which indicates to owners the remaining storage capacity as they add data. The household appliance-like consumer experience continues when the computer is turned off My Book automatically and safely powers down with the computer and powers up when the system is restarted.
"The My Book family is the next generation in external storage," said Jim Welsh, general manager of WD's Branded Products Group. "Consumers of digital media today are a much broader set of the population than in the past, and they want external storage that is easy to use and has an appealing design. With My Book, WD merges these attributes with the quality and reliability that our customers worldwide have come to expect."
A Family
Two members of the My Book family initially are available: My Book Essential Edition and My Book Premium Edition. Both versions connect to PCs or Macs with USB 2.0 and have a lighted on/off button on the binding of the book. My Book Premium adds FireWire 400 connectivity for a 25 percent performance improvement in reading files compared with USB 2.0; easy-to-use backup software; and a capacity gauge.
Designed for reliability, the My Book family enclosure employs shock protection for the drive inside and is well-vented to ensure proper air circulation for cool drive operation. My Book also operates quietly for home and office environments.
A 3-D view and more information on the My Book family of external storage can be found at http://www.wdmybook.com
About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company's core business produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users' data close-at-hand and secure from loss.
WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers and selected resellers under Western Digital and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (http://www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.
