In the near future, hard disk drives (HDD) may face legitimate competition in the mobile computer mass storage market as Flash-based solid state drives (SSD) stand ready in the wings, reports In-Stat.
In fact, SSDs have the potential to dethrone HDD as the top laptop storage choice within 10 years, the high-tech market research firm says. The research leads In-Stat to believe that the SSD market share in mobile computers could reach 50% by 2013.
The research was driven by In-Stat's survey of 389 mobile computer users, which allowed primary insight into consumers' valuation of SSD in mobile computers. From this research, In-Stat weighed the perceived benefits of SSDs with the rapidly declining cost/gigabyte trends of Flash to develop a demand sensitive forecasting model.
"The HDD industry has done a phenomenal job of driving areal densities; however, it is clear that there are user segments for which drive capacities far exceed the user's need," says Frank Dickson, In-Stat analyst. "When one examines the declining cost trends for Flash, the user's need for storage and the premium that consumers place on the benefits provided by SSDs, it is easy to see that there will be a clear demand for SSDs."
Among the findings
- Given the benefits, almost two thirds of respondents to an In-Stat consumer survey are comfortable with paying extra for SSDs in mobile computers.
- Of all the benefits of SSDs, respondents indicate that power savings is the most important.
- The market inflection point begins in 2010 for In-Stat's expected forecast, as SSDs start to become an economically viable alternative to a wider base of consumers.
In related research, In-Stat found that as consumers continue to amass large amounts of digital content, they require enhanced storage capacity on their consumer electronic products. Hard drive manufacturers are increasing storage capacities on smaller form factor hard disk drives (HDDs); as a result, these companies are poised to benefit from the expanding Consumer Electronics (CE) market. In 2004, shipments of hard disk drives into the Consumer Electronics segment reached 40 million units, and this market will reach almost 240 million units in 2009. Over the next few years, significant growth may come from portable devices such as PDAs, digital camcorders, and mobile phones.
www.in-stat.com

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