The new iPod device from Apple is again breath taking.
More importantly, however, it is the first time, solid-state storage has overtaken disk drive as mass storage in a major computing device.
The demise of magneto-mechanical disk drives was predicted many times in the last ten years. But every time, the hard drive industry – consists of only five companies — was able to fight back with yet another round of density doubling and price dropping. Hard drive technology even amazingly replaced some solid-state device as those compact flash compatible micro-drives.
Now this time it is real – the 4GB chip has successfully replaced the tiny 1.5 inch disk drives in the iPod Mini and becomes the iPod Nano – pencil thin, color screen, and weigh less than a few coins. What’s next? Laptop computers with 20GB non-spinning storage maybe – very light and shock resistant.