According to research firm, Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household currently has over 120 GB (gigabytes) of digital media and files, which is projected to grow to over 1 TB of data by 2013. Many consumers store this content on multiple external drives which often makes it difficult to know what or whose content is on which drive. During the development process, WD researchers visited with consumers and frequently noted a variety of ad hoc solutions to the "what’s on the drive?" or the "whose drive is this?" problems, ranging from hand-written notes to machine printed sticky labels. The e-label smart display was conceived as an elegant and practical solution to address this consumer need.

From the press release "WD Debuts My Book Elite External Hard Drives With Customizable E-label" by Anna Ribeiro.