An extremely competitive man, Watkins occasionally scorns the competition, and frowns on some elements of entrepreneurialism. "We don't like grey markets," he says. "It screws up whole pricing. We had a guy -- when DRAMs were going up, he was buying drives on credit, selling them for cheaper than he bought them, and using the cash to buy DRAMs. He was then able to sell the DRAMs as the market was exploding. By the time the month was up and he came to pay us back we were able to track his serial numbers around the world. We don't like grey markets."

As evidenced by his statement on pornography, Watkins remained aware of just why people are buying Seagate devices, and it isn't for reasons of security. "People are walking into stores and buying drives because they are running out of space -- they just need more storage. You don't clean out your closet and you don't clean out your drive. We want to change this and teach people how to back up."

If Watkins is right, even though customers will continue to hoard old wedding photos, videos and other media, disk capacity will be able to keep up with them. "I think it will grow by at least 50 per cent a year, maybe more in certain applications," he predicts.

"We are in a bit of a catch-up situation. This time last year we shipped a 160GB two-disk notebook, today its a 500GB two-disk notebook," he said. "We see ourselves doing a terabyte per square inch within four years."

Meanwhile, despite the rapid rise in solid-state media, non-platter methods of storage simply will not be able to keep up. "There is no alternative to disks," Watkins argues. "Disk drives are replacing tape, and while solid state will have some applications, by 2012 it will still only be [in limited capacities]. You can get 100 per cent backup with disks; you can't get that with solid state."