One of the biggest stumbling blocks for Solid State Drives, when compared against traditional HDDS was the price point. More advanced technology and more expensive materials translated easily to a much, much pricier piece of hardware. As many have predicted, that price gap is very rapidly closing- and very soon, we might be seeing HDDS phased out for faster, more durable, more reliable storage hardware.
It certainly helps that OEMs are doing everything in their power to make SSDs a more attractive solution for customers, slashing prices across the board and aggressively marketing the advantage of solid-state over disc drive. The solid state revolution looks as though it’s finally kicking into full swing.
Actually, for many people, it’s already here- and it’s been here for a while.
Many data centers, for instance, already utilize flash memory for its reduced power consumption and increased efficiency. The fact that a solid state drive’s less likely to bork itself up than a hard disc is another benefit that many operators find rather irresistible. After all, even if you’re using redundant hardware, you still don’t want any of it to fail.
Of course, they’ve got the money to shell out for the highest grade components. Not everyone does. That’s alright though- if SSD prices continue dropping at the rate they are, it won’t really matter- before much longer, we might well see hard drives go the way of the floppy disc. Maybe.
…Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration. They’re going to be sticking around for a long while yet. But one can’t help but wonder if someday, they’ll be seen to be as archaic and ancient as the first Personal Computers appear to the modern user. That’s still a long way off, though, if that day will ever come at all. It’s far likelier that we’ll see flash memory and SSDs take the enterprise sector by storm, with data facilities across the globe shelling out for solid state over spinning disc, while home users and average consumers simply stick with their hard drives. At the very least, we’re looking at at least another five to ten years before SSDs take over for good.
But it’ll happen. That’s one thing we can state for certain.
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I want this. I’m sick and tired of having this crappy 80GB SDD. But I can’t. When 200GB SDD is still 200$… Once this happens. At least phones will start having more space. I want a 200 or 500GB ipod touch already.