Fujitsu will start producing 1.8in hard disks through a partnership with Cornice, a US manufacturer of small format hard drives for consumer electronics devices.

The company will start by developing a 120Gb model scheduled for release by 2007. Fujitsu is entering a market currently dominated by Toshiba.

Small hard drives are widely deployed in portable media players such as Apple’s iPod. Other applications include digital video cameras and ultra-portable notebooks.

The iPod uses a 1.8in hard drive made by Toshiba. The iPod mini featured a 1in drive from Hitachi, but Apple discontinued the model in October and replaced it with the iPod Nano that uses flash memory. Current 1in drives offer up to 8Gb storage.

Fujitsu already makes 2.5in and 3.5in drives for desktop computers and enterprise servers, as well as special 2.5in models for notebooks.

The manufacturer will further develop its 2.5in and 3.5in drives, promising to launch new high-speed and high-capacity models before April 2007.

Fujitsu also plans to start shipping a 200Gb drive for laptops before April 2007 to meet the demand for media-centric devices.