Consistent advances in magnetic recording products and applications over several decades have resulted from increases in recording density and bandwidth using the same basic design of recording components. Now, new components and recording methods are receiving major development emphasis and are candidates to extend performance beyond today's product achievements. The key winning and losing magnetic recording components and techniques are reviewed and the new challenging designs are considered for future applications
  Magnetic heads, media, and recording methods have evolved in different ways to extend recording performance and density for data storage, and for consumer video and audio recording applications. In particular, the development of new components for consumer recording systems may provide lower cost technology for data storage applications. Some examples of successful application of components to different recording systems will be described.