Western Digital Tries to Diversify With Sony

A partnership deal announced last week by Western Digital Corp. and Sony Corp. was one more move by the Irvine-based company to cushion itself from the maddening cycles of its primary business of computer hard drives.

The two companies will develop a hard drive to hold movies, television shows and other videos, sort of like a digital VCR without the tape.

Among the benefits would be the ability to tape several shows at once or to watch a taped show while recording another one.

Such a device would require a significant yet inexpensive amount of storage space. For example, the trilogy of “Godfather” movies in high-definition television format would take up 78 gigabytes. By comparison, the latest hard drive from Western Digital’s Caviar line carries 20 gigabytes of data and will retail for $449.95, too pricey for consumer electronics purposes.

If the agreement bears fruit, Western Digital will gain a valuable foothold in consumer electronics. The company has been working hard to diversify from its core line of hard drives for desktop computers, which has been a brutal low-margin business for the last several years.