Preposterous claims for storage technology?

According to a story on slashdot, an inventor, Michael Thomas, claims to have solved “non-contact spintronics” and will therefore increase hard drive storage capabilities 1000 fold.  This will result in 1.2 petabyes of storage on a 3.5″ hard drive.  He expects his technology to be ready in 4 to 5 years, and to come in around $750.

To borrow a comment made many times before on many techie sites, why is all the great technology 4 to 5 years off?  I expect that like all other great technologies that are 4 to 5 years off at announcement, this will also remain perpetually just a few years away from shipping product.  I hope I’m wrong, but doubt I will be.

[tags]Hard Drive technology, Colossal Storage[/tags]