The price for consumer storage is dropping rapidly. As more and more companies enter the consumer storage market the price of storage devices like USB hard drives continues to go down. Hitachi acquired consumer storage provider Fabrik in February of 2009 and has unveiled the first products since that purchase.

Hitachi announced this week three new storage products including the SimpleTough drive, the SimpleDrive Miniportable, and the SimpleNet network storage adapter. The rugged SimpleTough drive is powered by the USB port of the computer so no external power adapter is needed. The drive is built to withstand drops of up to three meters and is water resistant. The device comes in 250GB for $99.99, 320GB for $119.99 and 500GB for $149.99.

The SimpleDrive Miniportable is a small hard drive-based portable storage solution with capacities of 250GB for $89.99, 320GB for $109.99, and 500GB for $139.99. The SimpleNet is an adapter that connects to an Ethernet port and has dual USB ports on the end for connecting external storage and putting them online to share across a network. The device supports Mac, Linux, and PC for $79.

Hitachi has picked a challenging time to enter into the consumer storage market as prices are dropping rapidly. EWeek reports that prices for consumer and small business storage have plummeted in the last 12 to 18 months.  Hitachi's last new storage product was a 500GB HDD aimed at DVR usage.

The Hitachi products are rebranded SimpleTech devices.

Hitachi's Mike Williams said, "We believe that given the global strength of Hitachi, the close relationships we have built with our end users as SimpleTech, and the continued support of our retail and channel partners, we are well-positioned to move our branded business forward."