Although external hard disk drives are very useful for storage of large amounts of information, connecting them using cables may be uncomfortable or even impossible. While there are drives with Wi-Fi, Seagate Technology and Verizon Wireless have proposed an even more sophisticated solution: an external hard drive with 4G/LTE connectivity along with Wi-Fi support.

The Seagate GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage 4G/LTE not only keeps the necessary data accessible over wireless local area network, but it can download music, movies and photos over 4G LTE and stream it all over Wi-Fi for up to three of mobile devices. Just like the Wi-Fi only version, the GoFlex Satellite 4G/LTE will be compatible with Apple iOS- and Google Android-based tablets and smartphones.

Seagate is a participant in the Verizon LTE innovation center and has been engaged with Verizon Wireless for two years of development for this product concept. Based on market and customer feedback, this Mobile Wireless Storage solution is a potential future product collaboration between Verizon and Seagate.

Although external hard drives and other gadgets with 4G/LTE support may make a lot of sense, their appeal will gradually erode once 4G/LTE becomes common in smartphones and tablets. Widespread adoption of next-generation wide area network technology will make it possible to stream multimedia directly onto devices using various cloud services and there will be no need in carrying large amounts of data all the time.

Tags: Seagate, Verizon, 4G, LTE, HDD