Seagate has announced that it supplied hard disk drive (HDD) for the world’s first handheld tablet computers with hard drives. The Archos G9 8” and 10” tablets feature the Seagate Momentus Thin hard drive in super-slim 7mm profile.

Momentus Thin drive, gives users 250GB of capacity, eight times more than a standard 32GB tablet but at the same cost, according to Seagate. The Momentus Thin is world's first ultra-thin 2.5” hard drive that is 7mm thick for ultra-portables including tablets and slim laptops. The Seagate Momentus Thin hard drive offers 320GB, 250GB and 160GB capacities, 7200RPM and 5400RPM spin speeds with 16MB of cache. Optionally, it can sport U.S government-grade (FIPS 140-2 certified) encryption to protect computer data.

“Seagate continues to break new ground in the development of products and technologies that matter most to customers by delivering the Momentus Thin drive for these powerful Archos tablets. The Momentus Thin drive gives tablet buyers a compelling option, providing great storage capacity and performance that dovetail with the processing power of the new Archos products for great Android and multimedia experience,” said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate chief sales and marketing officer.

Even though it is a clear technological achievement to create a 2.5” 7mm hard drive and then squeeze it into a tablet, it is questionable whether this advantage transforms into a mass success. Firstly, there are 1.8” HDDs that are more suitable for tablets. Secondly, flash-based storage is more reliable for mobile devices. Thirdly, mobile devices hardly need massive storage capacities.

Archos 80 G9, the 8” product, and Archos 101 G9, the 10” model, are scheduled to be available in late September. Estimated MSRPs for the Archos 80GB G9 and Archos 101GB tablets are $279 and $349, respectively, compared to competitive tablets starting at $499.

Tags: Seagate, Momentus, Archos