Seagate Announces Wireless ‘GoFlex Satellite’ Hard Drive for iOS Devices

At CES this past January, Kingston showed us an upcoming product that we knew had the potential to become a boon for iPad and iPhone users – a mobile hard drive with wireless capabilities. At the time, the idea and implementation impressed us enough to warrant Kingston’s earning of one of our “Best of CES 2011” awards, and though the product is still not commercially available, it’s one that’s likely to hit the market soon.

Given the huge convenience such a device offered – that is, to provide additional storage to your iPhone or iPad wirelessly, we knew that other companies would follow suit sooner than later. But to Kingston’s disadvantage, we knew it’d be hard drive vendors stepping in, who are able to offer a lot more storage than it would due to the high cost of flash memory. Well, our assumptions were correct, and we have Seagate to thank.

The “GoFlex Satellite” mobile wireless storage device offers a staggering 500GB worth of storage, and is to be used in conjunction with the iPad (and other iOS devices, but for obvious reasons the iPad is a better feature platform). The device works by acting as a wireless hotspot that can be connected to, and with an iPad app, can be browsed for all sorts of media.

The GoFlex Satellite’s five-hour battery-life rating leaves a bit to be desired, but it can be charged via wall socket or USB (2.0 or 3.0), so whether on a plane or at home, the weak battery-life shouldn’t be too much of a burden. To load media onto the device, it can also act as a normal external hard drive, so loading it up shouldn’t be a problem for most people.

Those looking to purchase the GoFlex Satellite have just have one option, 500GB, which will set them back $199.99. It’s only available as a pre-order for the time-being, but should become available soon. As for Kingston, we hope to hear more about its own flash-based device at this upcoming Computex, and I’ve heard from an industry insider that it’s very likely Western Digital will follow-up with a similar device of its own within the next month as well.

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – May 16, 2011 – Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), today announced GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage, the first battery-powered external hard drive to wirelessly extend the storage capacity of any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device. With 500GB and Wi-Fi access over 802.11 b/g/n and a rechargeable battery, this latest member of the GoFlex family provides the ability to carry an entire library of video, music, pictures and documents with you. Devices are wirelessly connected directly to the GoFlex Satellite drive by use of the free GoFlex Media app–available now on iTunes and the Apple App Store–or a web browser.