Sixty-million units sold, and 42,000 petabyes of storage space provided to consumers. These are the numbers Western Digital is promoting for the 10th anniversary of its My Passport line of portable, external hard drives, which are among the company’s most popular products.
To celebrate the 10-year milestone, Western Digital has introduced two new My Passport Ultra models, a Metal Edition, and an Anniversary Edition, which feature smaller aluminium exteriors with spiral design patterns. The new drives are aimed at those looking for something more stylish than a typical external portable hard drive. Capacity for the new drives goes up to 2TB, and the interface is USB 3.0.
Tony Tate, vice president and general manager of WD’s Content Solutions, said in a statement that the ongoing feedback from customers has “helped make My Passport the most popular external hard drives ever.” He said the drives have evolved to suit the changing needs of customers over the years, with Cloud integration through services such as Dropbox being a key element and forming part of the ongoing protection of users’ data through the bundled WD SmartWare software.
Pricing for the Metal Edition and Anniversary Edition drives is identical, with the 1TB version costing $120 in Australia and $150 in New Zealand, and the 2TB version costing $180 in Australia and $220 in New Zealand.
