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Samsung Electronics started off CeBIT 2006 with a bang Thursday, unveiling the world’s first 8-Gbyte hard disk embedded phone. (See figure.)

Increasing memory capacity in their cellular phones is a goal that Samsung has been working toward for years now. The company launched two previous models with a 3-Gbyte hard drive and one with a 1.5-Gbyte hard drive.

Muzib Khan, vice president of product management and engineering at Samsung, said the company opted for hard drives because they fulfill a need by consumers for more storage without compromising the size of the phone.

"Hard drives allow more memory in the smallest space," Muzib said. "Hence, they are very attractive for large data storage."

According to PC Magazine, the number of cell phones with hard drive-based memory is expected to increase over the next several years. The magazine reports that Cornice, a U.S.-based compact storage solutions company that recently debuted a line of durable micro hard drives, expects the market for cell-phone hard drives to grow 325% between 2004 and 2009.

The i310 features a 2-Mpixel digital camera with flash, microSD slot, document viewer and TV output. It runs on Windows Mobile 5.0, which allows users to view and transfer files and carry their music library with them. USB 2.0 Plug & Play allows the phone to serve as a removable hard disk.

Samsung Electronics www.samsung.com