The widespread use of Flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs) could be as far off as five years, according to one analyst. Jim Handy, of Objective Analysis, believes that the chip-based drives may not see significant use in notebook computers for three to five years. "We remain sceptical in our outlook for rapid adoption of Flash-based SSDs," he said.
"Flash has found success in replacing hard disk drives [HDDs] where a fixed capacity is needed, but notebook and PC users will continue to demand increasingly larger HDDs for quite a while yet." The first Flash-based drives began to emerge as options for notebooks in 2007. Vendors such as Apple and Dell offer SSDs on selected notebooks at anywhere from $900 to $1,300.