Flash drives will replace hard drives, but there must be further price erosion first

Implications: 1. NAND flash based drives (i.e. SSD) are currently and will continue to become a mainstream replacement for rotating media in various devices (notebooks, embedded computers, networking hardware,etc) 2.NAND pricing must further drop in order for 32GB-128GB and higher SSD's to become cost effective for the end user. 3. Currently, Apple is not helping the situation due to their high demand/usage of NAND for current and upcoming products. It is good for the NAND market/semis but not for the consumer.

Analysis: NAND has been replacing traditional rotating hard drives in industrial applications for several years already, but currently SSD (mainly 2.5") is spreading rapidly. Engineers are excited to work with a non-volatile storage media that can greatly improve system performance (faster access speeds, extended battery life, lower heat production,etc) but currently prices still make the SSD cost prohibitive for many manufacturers.

Currently, flash pricing is on an upward trend, which is good for the chip manufacturers and card houses, but bad for consumers hoping to have a relatively inexpensive 32GB/64GB SSD in their laptop. This may last for a bit of time, thus possibly delaying the wide adoption of high capacity SSDs in the consumer/enterprise market. But, as the semis have proven time and time again, a shortage lead to inevitable supply excesses as more production kicks in. In several months, when parts are in excess supply, SSD's will once again really become attractive to the mainstream markets and not be limited to industrial apps.