Apple To Ditch HDD In Favor Of All-Flash iPods

According to an analyist with the Prudential Equity Group, Apple will ditch its 1.8" HDD based iPods in favor of NAND flash memory iPods by the end of the year ; when they will presumably be introducing their next generation of iPod.

The cost-per-gigabyte for NAND flash memory, though it has fallen considerably in recent memory, is still higher than that of a 1.8" HDD, and with new technologies Apple will be ditching the opportunity for a 120 GB iPod if they leave the 1.8" format behind.

The upside to the move is that battery time will be increased dramatically, most notably for movies. The two to three hours or so of video playback you can currently get on the iPod is barely enough enough for most feature films, and a move to NAND flash based storage, which uses less battery power than the physical 1.8" HDDs ; would allow an increase in video playback of up to 5.5 hours.

The iPod Nano was successfully shifted from using a 1" HDD to NAND flash, and the analyists figure that Apple could begin shifting the entire iPod range to flash memory by the end of 2007.

The loss of 120 GB iPods might not be such a bad thing, in the long run. 30 GB seems to be the sweet spot for the market - yours truly has only managed to fill 15% of his 30 GB iPod after eight months of ownership and developing a love of large audio books - and the NAND flash players would be around the 32 GB mark.

This will also mark the next feature set for the iPod, including the much rumored touchscreen control system, wireless internet and GPS functionality, among other nifty features. Share: