A Big ‘Movie Deal’

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.

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 amount of storage space. For example, the trilogy of Godfather movies in high-definition television format would take up 78 gigabytes. By way of 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 past several years.

“I don’t mind participating in a cyclical business. I just don’t want it to be our only business,” said Russell Stern, senior vice president of strategic business development, marketing and sales. And, of course, consumer electronics has more sex appeal than computers.

“When we say that what we provide is hours of enjoyment as opposed to gigabytes of data, there is a much better branding statement and value statement for Western Digital,” Stern said.

Jonathan Gaw covers technology and electronic commerce for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7818 and at jonathan.gaw@latimes.com.