Holographic Data Storage - Development and Marketing

Development and Marketing

At the National Association of Broadcasters 2005 (NAB) convention in Las Vegas, InPhase conducted public demonstrations of the world’s first prototype of a commercial storage device at the Maxell Corporation of America booth.

The three main companies involved in developing holographic memory, as of 2002, were InPhase and Polaroid spinoff Aprilis in the United States, and Optware in Japan. Although holographic memory has been discussed since the 1960s, and has been touted for near-term commercial application at least since 2001, it has yet to convince critics that it can find a viable market. As of 2002, planned holographic products did not aim to compete head to head with hard drives, but instead to find a market niche based on virtues such as speed of access.

InPhase Technologies, after several announcements and subsequent delays in 2006 and 2007, announced that it would soon be introducing a flagship product. InPhase went out of business in February 2010 and had its assets seized by the state of Colorado for back taxes. The company had reportedly gone through $100 million but the lead investor was unable to raise more capital.

In April 2009, GE Global Research demonstrated their own holographic storage material that could allow for discs that utilize similar read mechanisms as those found on Blu-ray Disc players.