Despite Seagate's remarks that Solid State Drives (SSDs) are not the future (but hybrids are), SanDisk, one of the world's largest producers of flash-based devices, disagrees. The company has high expectations for SSDs in both enterprise systems and mobile computers.
"As for SSD, these are transforming enterprise storage as we speak, and we are within one or two generations from their mass adoption in notebook PCs and other thin clients," Eli Harari, Sandisk's outgoing Chief Executive Officer, said during the company's Third Quarter (PDF) conference call with financial analysts. "To be a market leader in SSD you need to have access to leading-edge high-quality Flash, shippable in high volumes at a competitive cost, applying sophisticated know-how for managing highly scaled NAND, having the requisite patents, and building on strong OEM credentials. SanDisk has it all, and we are working diligently to gain a leadership position in this space."
Harari admits that currently only a fraction of notebooks use SSDs but he believes as notebooks get thinner, PC makers will be forced to use SSDs instead of HDDs. Price will of course be the main driving factor for getting SSDs into PCs. I personally expect my next PC to have one, what about you?