Flash Computers?
Rumors are swirling in the technology industry that Apple is considering making a computer with no hard disk drive. Instead, the computer would use flash memory for data storage. This could spell real trouble for hard disk manufacturers.
The maker of the popular iPod music player and Macintosh computers hopes to introduce so-called flash memory in small computers known as subnotebooks in the second half of 2007, Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research who has a "buy" rating on Apple shares and does not own any stock, said in investor notes on Wednesday and Thursday.
A shift to flash memory in place of much slower hard-disk drives would eliminate one headache for consumers: lengthy start-up times when turning on computers.
Apple of Cupertino, California, already uses flash memory in its iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle music players. Flash memory is lighter, uses less power and takes up less space than hard-disk drives.
Wu, who was among the first analysts to forecast the unveiling of Apple's iPhone music player/phone earlier this year, cited unnamed industry sources as the basis for his report.
"The time is right for the flash makers to make a move" as flash memory prices decline, Wu said by telephone. "Apple, from what we understand, is pretty much ready. The ball is in the flash vendors' court."
Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox said the company does not comment "on rumor and speculation." Apple shares were up 60 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $88.32 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq.
A transition to flash memory for computers could put pressure on makers of traditional hard-disk drives including Seagate Technology, the largest U.S. hard-disk drive maker, Wu said.
I've got a little (by today's standards) 1 gigabyte flash drive that I use a lot to transfer data between computers. It is a heck of a lot easier to use than the old floppy disks were and has an enormously larger capacity. It really is only a matter of time until a completely solid-state computer hits the market. The question is, can they make enough memory fit into the same amount of space as some of the monster hard drives that are available today? That will be the real challenge. Anyone else notice that Apple appears to be regaining its position as a technology leader?
Geek Stuff | Gaius Saturday, 10 March , 2007
By victor, Saturday, 10 March , 2007 @ 10:40 am
Do most people need the huge hard drives that come with todays PCs?
By Gaius, Saturday, 10 March , 2007 @ 11:04 am
If you use the computer for video-intensive applications, yes. Those files are enormous (8 gigs for a feature-length DVD movie is about average). A lot of graphics are that way, photos and such. I have photo files that reach the 20 gig mark very quickly and I only use a 4 megapixel camera.
By Victor, Saturday, 10 March , 2007 @ 4:46 pm
I understand that video and photos can be large. I just don’t think most users do those activities and would need that kind of space (I would be interested to see what percentage that is, though). I think most people are just surfing the net which doesn’t require much at all.
By Gaius, Saturday, 10 March , 2007 @ 7:56 pm
I’d agree that a lot of people can get along just fine with a small - at least by today’s standards - drive. But I’d be interested to see how much space just the operating system takes up in Vista. I think I recall a bare Windows XP install ran somewhere around 5-6 gigs. Ubuntu Linux is around 3 gigs with a full Open Office suite, Gimp photoediting and a whole bunch of standard desktop applications right out of the box, so to speak.
By Steve White, Saturday, 10 March , 2007 @ 8:28 pm
My guess: We’ll see ‘hybrid’ models first: both flash and HD for storage. You’ll use the flash ‘drive’ for the operating system and critical files and the HD for your usual stuff. As the price of flash memory comes down we’ll shift more and more to that.
On my iMac, the system (System folder and root Library folder) is about 15.6 GB. Add another 17 GB for applications and a couple more GB for the User library. So a 32 GB flash drive is what I need, minimum.
By Gaius, Saturday, 10 March , 2007 @ 9:21 pm
At the moment my main box has about 40 gigs on its main drive, rather less on the backup. But I store a lot of photo files on a stand alone Ion (Iomega) drive, including system backups for the network computers. If I tried to put everything on this computer it would barely hold it. And it has two large drives.
Then again, I’m a packrat with programs and files. And I keep a lot of pictures stashed. Those files get rather large, rather quickly. I shudder to think what a ten megapixel camera would do to my drives…..