Hitachi announces first USB 3.0 external drives

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) has announced a new line of Hitachi Touro Pro desktop and mobile external hard drives, which offer both local backup and cloud storage functionality. The Touro Pro line is an all-in-one solution to help protect, transport, and store your photos, music, videos, and documents for easy access from anywhere.

The Touro Mobile Pro Portable Drive (500GB for $110 or 750GB for $130) has the following features: sleek mobile design, 7200 RPM drives, local and cloud backup, cloud access anytime, upgrade for more cloud storage and apps, USB 3.0 interface, and USB powered. The Touro Desk Pro External Drive (1TB for $130, 2TB for $180, or 3TB for $230) has the following features: stackable desktop design, 7200 RPM drives, local and cloud backup, remote access anytime, upgrade for more cloud storage and apps, and USB 3.0 interface.

With a few clicks, the Hitachi Touro Pro local backup software will backup your photos, music, videos, and documents from your computer directly to the drive. Once installed, backups run quietly and automatically every 30 minutes, though you can schedule custom backups on a time or day that's convenient for you.

In addition to simple local backup features, the Touro Pro family's online storage option ensures your data is always accessible in the cloud, allowing you to access and share files from any browser, tablet, or smartphone. When using the cloud service, all content is stored in its natural format (no proprietary formatting), so files are easy to view, download, and share. You can even share your online content with others by just sending them a link. To start you off, you'll get 3GB of online storage for free. For more storage, there is an option to upgrade to 250GB for only $49 per year (you'll also get Hitachi's iPhone and iPad apps).

"Unbound by convention, Hitachi GST was the first to blend personal storage with cloud backup. We're liberating our customers from the limitations of today's technology and giving them free reign about where they store and how they access their digital content," Mike Williams, general manager of Hitachi GST Branded Business Group, said in a statement. "Our new intelligent storage products and services continue to redefine how we connect to our content -, while providing data protection, simplicity and ease of use for just about anyone."

In 2015: iOS still first for tablets, Android second, BlackBerry third

Last year, Apple began to dominate the tablet space with the iPad. In 2015, it will have a significantly smaller worldwide market share, but will still be in first place, despite mounting competition from other operating systems. Android will gain significant share, but will still be nipping at iOS' heels, and will have to settle for second place in the next four years, according to Gartner.

Where does that leave the rest of the market in 2015? Gartner believes Research In Motion's QNX, which powers the BlackBerry Playbook, will be in third. Meanwhile, webOS, which powers the HP TouchPad, will be in fourth. MeeGo will take fifth, but it will barely have any users. Gartner does not even mention Microsoft's Windows.

Last week, Gartner declared that for smartphones, Android would be first, Windows Phone be second, and iOS would be third in 2015. It appears the advisory firm is much more confident in Apple staving off competition to iOS in the tablet space than in the smartphone market.

These are predictions based on current data, but they will of course change as we learn more about the competition Apple is going to be facing. For example, Microsoft will likely push hard with Windows 8, and we already know the OS is expected to include a second, tile-based shell just for tablets.

"Seeing the response from both consumers and enterprises to the iPad, many vendors are trying to compete by first delivering on hardware and then trying to leverage the platform ecosystem," Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, said in a statement. "Many, however, are making the same mistake that was made in the first response wave to the iPhone, as they are prioritizing hardware features over applications, services and overall user experience. Tablets will be much more dependent on the latter than smartphones have been, and the sooner vendors realize that the better chance they have to compete head-to-head with Apple."