Solid State Drives Expected to Challenge Hard Drives in Laptop Market

In-Stat: 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. In fact, SSDs have the potential to dethrone HDD as the top laptop storage choice within 10 years, . 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. 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.

• 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.

Flash-Based SSDs in Mobile Computing: Contender or Pretender? Publ 20060717