Memory battle heats up for next gen iPod-style devices

A storage format battle is heating up with NAND flash memory and hard disk drives (HDDs) vying to become the preferred media for next generation portable consumer electronics devices such as smartphones and mobile media players.

The struggle, according to IDC, will continue and probably increase with price disparity decreasing over the next four years. The analyst firm predicts that the average selling price of NAND memory is expected to decrease at a 43 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2004 to 2009.

However, price per Gigabyte is not expected to be the sole decision criteria for manufacturers of portable consumer electronics devices. 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," said John Rydning, research manager with IDC's Storage Mechanisms: Disk Program.

"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," added Celeste Crystal, senior analyst, Semiconductors research at IDC.