1.8'' hard drives up due to high demand, iPods

Research firm TrendFocus sees hard drive shipments to consumer electronics makers soaring to 55 million units in 2006 from an estimated 17 million this year. Blazing a trail for the market is Japan's Toshiba, which provides small drives for Apple Computer's hugely popular iPod music player. Toshiba controls 98% of the market for the 1.8 inch-diameter drives used in the iPod, which can pack up to 10,000 songs in a device the size of a deck of cards, and its small drives are also appearing in a miniature video camera that can record up to two hours of high-definition video.