HP Kittyhawk
| Company type | Product |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | June 9, 1992 |
| Founder | Hewlett-Packard |
| Products | Hard disk drives |
| Parent | Hewlett-Packard |
The Hewlett-Packard HP3013/3014, commonly referred to as Kittyhawk, was a hard disk drive introduced by Hewlett-Packard on June 9, 1992. Created with collaboration from AT&T and produced by Citizen Watch, it held the distinction of being the smallest hard disk drive available worldwide at its launch. However, despite its technological advancements, Kittyhawk did not achieve commercial success, primarily due to its expensive price point.
History
Kittyhawk represented the first hard drive to be mass-produced in a 1.3-inch size format. The initial 3013 model provided a storage capacity of 20 MB, followed by the Kittyhawk II (model 3014) which doubled that capacity to 40 MB and was sold at a retail price of $499. Both models utilized IDE interfaces, with certain variants equipped with PC card connectivity. The drive’s dimensions were and it weighed approximately , with manufacturing handled by Citizen Corporation, known for expertise in compact device fabrication. Notably, the drive incorporated an integrated accelerometer designed to safeguard data integrity during drops, allowing it to endure a fall from onto concrete while operational.
Despite these innovative attributes, Kittyhawk experienced minimal market penetration. Its high cost per megabyte combined with limited storage capacity discouraged adoption by notebook computer manufacturers. A few original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as EO—an early developer of pen-based computing devices running the GO operating system—implemented the drive; however, the anticipated growth in handheld computing markets failed to materialize in the early 1990s. Additionally, potential sectors like video game consoles were not pursued due to prohibitive production expenses.
HP ceased production of Kittyhawk in September 1994 after approximately 160,000 units were sold, falling short of the forecasted two-year target of 700,000 units. This commercial setback led Hewlett-Packard to shut down its Disk Memory Division in 1996 and withdraw from the disk drive industry altogether.
The story of HP’s Kittyhawk is analyzed in Harvard Business School’s case study titled "Hewlett-Packard: The Flight of the Kittyhawk" and is also discussed in Clayton M. Christensen’s book The Innovator's Dilemma.
See also
- Microdrive – IBM and Hitachi’s 1-inch hard disk drive introduced in 1999
- List of disk drive form factors
References