Hitachi said on Sunday that it plans to spend about US$200 million to double the hard disk drive output of its Thailand factory, including the 1-inch 4GB Microdrives that are used in the iPod Mini. The company said Microdrive production will rise to about 2 million units per quarter by the end of 2004, up from 200,000 in the first three months of this year. Apple announced in March that the iPod mini would not be released worldwide until July due to inadequate supplies of the hard drives required. Apple’s US online store shows an approximate wait of six weeks for the colorful digital music players.
