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IBM first shipped the one-inch Microdrive in 1999. Back then you could only squeeze 340 MB of storage into that amount of space. While that was quite a bit of memory at the time, it only scratches the surface of what consumers require today.

This week Hitachi Global Storage Technologies—the result of IBM's sale of much of its hard drive business to Hitachi a couple of years ago—introduced a 6 GB version of the Microdrive, 2 GB larger than the previous model.

6 GB lets you carry 1500-3000 songs, 6,000 pictures (1 MB each), or 8 hours of MPEG-4 video in a CompactFlash Type II format card. The new Microdrive sells for $299.

Although that may seem like a lot of money, keep in mind that the 4 GB edition cost a whopping $499 when it first shipped in November of 2003. The price of that model drops to $199 with the introduction of the 6 GB Microdrive.

The new 6 GB Microdrive is available as a removable Compact Flash Type II card for consumers or as an embedded edition for manufacturers. With the memory card version you can greatly increase the storage capacity of your Compact Flash enabled PDA, smartphone, MP3 player, digital camera, etc.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies senior VP of product strategy Bill Healy says, "Our intent with the higher capacity and lower pricing of the new Microdrive is to let a greater number of users enjoy the benefit of keeping their precious data close at hand."

The company views the 6 MB Microdrive as a stopgap of sorts towards even smaller models with a lot more memory.

Healy asserts, "The desire for smaller devices with increasingly larger capacities won't be easily met in the short term, but we believe the 6 GB Microdrive will satisfy consumers' immediate needs while we work on developing ever higher capacities in future Microdrive products."

Hitachi plans to release an 8-10 GB hard drive, nicknamed “Mikey”, that is 20 percent smaller than the current one-inch models later this year.