Debate Between NAND and HDD for Portable Consumer Electronics Will Heat Up

IDC: The storage debate between NAND flash memory and hard disk drives (HDDs) for the portable consumer electronics market will continue and likely increase with price disparity decreasing over the next four years. NAND memory average selling price is expected to decrease at a 43% compound annual growth rate from 2004 to 2009. However, price per GB is not the sole decision criteria. Factors such as total capacity requirements, form-factor, power consumption, weight, durability, data rates, as well as strategic OEM and storage supplier alliances, weigh heavily into storage technology criterion.

We do not expect a "winner takes all" outcome by 2008 as both storage technologies will advance through technology transitions to provide higher capacity products and focus on their respective strengths. Instead of viewing each storage technology as a threat, flash and HDD vendors should approach this development as an opportunity to form alliances to broaden and extend their portfolio.

A Hard Choice That Won't be Made in a Flash: HDD Versus NAND Publ 20051130 Flash NON/NAND? Wikipedia