According to market research firm IDC, about 61.9 million home networks will be deployed worldwide by the end of this year. Maxtor said it's targeting those networks for sharing entertainment content among different devices, including Macs and PCs on the same shared network. With the new Maxtor Shared Storage Plus, up to 20 people could simultaneously listen to a music collection via a networked sound system, play movies on a networked theatre system and view a slide show on a laptop, all in different areas of a home or office.

The Maxtor Shared Storage Plus network disk storage devices carry retail prices of US$299.95 for the 200GB drive, $399.95 for a 300GB drive and $499.95 for a 500GB drive.