Solid state HDs for Apple?

[aved]

Just wondering if anyone has heard of Apple developing SSDs for laptops? I have heard rumors that Sony is going to release a SSD laptop soon...Hope Apple does the same.

[MisterMe]

People have been talking about solid state disks for the better part of the last 30 years, if not longer. Within the past year, there was a boomlet about flash drives replacing rotating platter drives. The fact remains that rotating platters continue to dramatically increase capacity while dramatically lowering prices. Solid state technologies have obvious advantages, but they still have a significant economic disadvantage. I will not hold my breath until this situation changes.

[Veljo]

I agree, I think it'll be a long time before we see any kind of large capacity flash drives in computers that consumers will be able to afford.

[Lt Major Burns]

although in the last 5 years, flash drives have gone from 32mb @ £100 to 2/4GB @ £100, tha's a pretty steep curve. the original iBook shipped about 6 years ago with a 3gb hard drive. which probably cost apple around £80-100 back then. flash drives are coming.

[Mikuro]

Is the demand for capacity increasing at the same rate as flash technology? I don't think so. The demand for capacity increases relatively slowly, and even then, it's mostly driven by luxuries — like movies, music, and games — that a very large market would just as soon do without.

However, I think Apple will wait longer than other companies, because that market doesn't overlap with their current target. How would they sell Macs without lots of space to use iTunes, iMovie, GarageBand, etc.? Apple only targets a fraction of the market that's out there, and it doesn't look like that will change. But flash is bound to catch up even to Apple's market sooner or later.

I wonder how much disk space my brother or my sister use. If you stripped out all the preinstalled crap they don't need or want, it would surely fit in 8-16GB.

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by Mikuro

Is the demand for capacity increasing at the same rate as flash technology? I don't think so. The demand for capacity increases relatively slowly, and even then, it's mostly driven by luxuries — like movies, music, and games — that a very large market would just as soon do without.

We live and work in very different worlds then. The computer I am using now is the first in which I have not had to add hard drive capacity. I don't see the how the user who buys software or creates files can avoid bumping into the capacity limits of his/her as purchased computer. In fact, I see a lot of users on this and other forums who are experiencing performance problems because they have exceeded 90% of the capacity of their hard drives.

Originally Posted by Mikuro

However, I think Apple will wait longer than other companies, because that market doesn't overlap with their current target. How would they sell Macs without lots of space to use iTunes, iMovie, GarageBand, etc.? Apple only targets a fraction of the market that's out there, and it doesn't look like that will change. But flash is bound to catch up even to Apple's market sooner or later.

As implied above, not all of us limit ourselves to the files that shipped with our computers. Many of us actually buy third-party software for work and play. Many of us also create files as part of our work and play. Our created files can be quite large.

Originally Posted by Mikuro

I wonder how much disk space my brother or my sister use. If you stripped out all the preinstalled crap they don't need or want, it would surely fit in 8-16GB.

It is always a bad idea to extrapolate your family into the general case. There is simply no reason to believe that it is representative of the user base.

[RGrphc2]

I've heard of Hybrid HDDs ones that use Solid State and RPM Drives.

Links to the article here
http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/25/s...ard-drive-hhd/
http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/19/h...-faster-boots/

i would like to see it in the MB/P

[fryke]

Don't believe it'll happen so soon, but I'd really _love_ to see a MacBook nano with 32 GB of NAND flash memory instead of a harddrive. Or... If someone would just _make_ a notebook compatible 2.5" drive with 32 (or more) GB of NAND, we could replace a MacBook's drive. Simple as that. Sure: It seems like 32 GB would never be enough - but then again, it would really help battery life.