Portable storage is the ideal solution for any digital content dilemma

Ruben Naicker

Furthermore, physical photo albums are all but a thing of the past. We live in an increasingly digital world where content is king. The only limit is the amount of storage we have access to - in other words the capacity of a hard drive. Desktops and notebooks have begun to incorporate larger hard drives as a result of this need, however, this does not address the other aspect of a connected, digital world - the need to share.

Users today not only want to be able to store all of their content, but to take it with them wherever they go and share it with friends and family on demand. High capacity portable hard drive storage is thus the ideal solution for any digital content dilemma.

Increasingly accessible

The internet provides us, as consumers, with a world of practically unlimited content, from music and videos to full-length movies, gaming and more. As bandwidth in South Africa becomes faster and more affordable, this digital domain becomes increasingly accessible, and users are downloading more content than ever. In addition to the wealth of downloadable content, as consumers we generate more data than ever - from thousands of digital photographs to High Definition (HD) home videos. Smartphones and digital technology have made content generation easier than ever before, and consumers are taking full advantage of this.

While digital content is one of the greatest conveniences of our time, it also poses a significant challenge to consumers in terms of storage space. The average desktop or notebook has around 500 Gigabytes (GB) of hard drive space, which needs to store the Operating System (OS), all software and then all of the content users wish to keep. With the sheer volume of content and the size of files increasing as quality improves, this capacity is simply no longer sufficient.

To put this into perspective - according to Fortune.com, iTunes announced that in 2008, approximately 50,000 movies were downloaded per day. This number has only increased over the years. A two-hour Standard Definition (SD) movie takes approximately 800 Megabytes (MB), with a HD movie often running into several GB. An average song of around four minutes can take up to 30MB of space. Multiply this by the thousands of songs many consumers possess, and the increased number of digital movies and series being downloaded, and the issue of storage becomes clear.

An external hard drive is therefore often necessary - but in today's world users do not want big, bulky and cumbersome devices that require external power supplies, like the majority of the desktop external hard drives available.

Portability and mobility are key, as consumers often wish to take their content and storage with them on the move, for sharing with family and friends. Catering to this demand, portable storage devices are available in increasingly higher capacities, up to 4 Terabytes (TB), which enables users to store, access and share their digital lives with ease. This enables users to store up to 1300 SD movies, 800 000 songs or nearly 700 000 photographs. Furthermore, portable hard drives allow users to take their digital content wherever they go - camping, road trips, the office, and more - giving you the freedom to listen or watch your downloaded content no matter where you are.