You mean like Seagate's Savvio 15K and 15K.2 lineup?

True - the Savvio drive already comes at 15,000rpm - brain death narrowly averted. Dunno if we'll see it short-stroked. What do you think?

Chris.

I have no idea (I hadn't come across the concept before). It's reasonable to expect the same sort of tricks being played by those desperate to eke out the last drops of performance with 2.5" media as with 3.5" media. Though since you can get about twice as many 2.5" drives in the same space as previously occupied by the 3.5" drives, it's probably needed less, and the benefit will be less anyway (smaller platters mean less of a difference in speed across the platter). The cost differential between SSD and HDD for equivalent capacity is going to take a while to disappear, IMHO.

HDD companies are always guided by pricing at capacity points so short stroking would be a last resort to get a performance level required.

They may do special versions at request of OEMs but I wouldn't see this as becoming a mainstream (enterprise) item.