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Bill Watkins believes that SSD makers such as Intel and Samsung violate Seagate patents that cover the methods by which storage drives communicate with computers.

He did not elaborate, but it is clear that Watkins is prepared should SSDs begin to eat into Seagate's quarterly sales of more than $3 billion. But for the time being he believes SSDs will remain a peripheral technology.

"Realistically, I just

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don't see the flash notebook sell," he told Fortune. "We just don't see the proposition."

He is right that Seagate is safe for now. SSDs are an expensive technology. In the MacBook Air, for example, the 64GB SSD option adds almost £1,000 to the price. But prices are falling with the real possibility of a price war in the very near future, according to Fortune. Both Intel and Samsung have indicated that they are prepared to cut prices in order to grab a larger share of the notebook market.

And Seagate will let you know at precisely which point SSDs have become a serious proposition for large numbers of laptop users, argues analysts' website Techdirt.

"If you want to know the point at which Seagate has realised it's lost the battle, just look for when the infringement lawsuits come out," it says.