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Currently, the biggest-capacity iPod, the 160 gigabyte model, can store approximately 40,000 songs. This new concept would also enable a whole new level of storage capabilities on ever smaller mobile devices.

 
This device uses what is called "racetrack" memory technology, which utilises "the spin of an electron to store data," and which requires much less power and operates more quickly than a regular hard drive.

Theoretically at least, these devices could operate on a single battery charge for "weeks at a time", and could last for decades.

IBM said the technology was still in the research stage, but that it anticipates that devices using this new technology to be on the market within the decade.