If you think that a 32/64GB SSD iPod Video available next year at at least double the cost of the 80/100/120GB HDD based model (probably) due out this year will emerge, or is even a good idea then you are living in a fantasy world.
Sure HDDs have moving parts which inherently makes them less reliable than SSDs with their lack of moving parts, but 1.8" drive reliability well outweighs the high cost premium and low relative capacity of NAND.
Leonard Nimrod: This month iAudio and Creative has announced their 16GB flash DAPs priced at $250, and they are on sale as we speak. Next year they will be doubling that to 32GB for the same price. Flash capacity has been doubled every year for devices like the iPod Nano. I live in reality land while you seem to have been living in a Cave.
1.8 inch HDDs in the iPods are very unreliable. My iPod photo died after 6 month and the replacement I got died after 1 year and 2 month. HDD failure is the most common death cause for the big iPod, resulting in a lot of warranty claims for Apple.
Therefor I bet that Apple are will be happy to switch to Flash for the big iPod as soon as the prices for the high capacity memory chips will go down to a reasonable level, which is at the second half of next year.
They tend to fail because they have crappy batteries more than because hard drive failure. And to Leonard's point, Steve isn't going to put SSDs in there if it doubles the cost and puts him too far out of price position. Even with Apple branded products, there is a price the market will bear.
I've had the hard drive die in my iPod Photo many times, and most times its been fixed with a firm whack on a solid surface. The problem isn't with the hard drive, its with the cable connecting it to the PCB.
Its still going to be a long time before flash can overtake hard drive in terms of space for your money.
Yet my nearly two-year old 30 GB iPod w/Video has not had any trouble with the hard drive or anything else. I'd hardly consider hard drives crappy or failure prone. I obviously have to agree that SSDs are tougher, though.
I've always had good experiences with hard drives for 20 years of computing. Out of about sixteen hard drives, I've only had one fail (spindle bearings gave out) after eight years.
I'd be happy to use that 160 GB drive in the next iteration of iPods.
@ Homeboy: "HDDs in iPod are wack because they fail and die easily."
Er...maybe if you put them in a blender (sorry). But seriously, hard drives have been in iPods since the very beginning, and just because 6 years on we can realistically speculate about large capacity flash based iPods, that doesn't suddenly make all the hard drive models unreliable and obsolete. I have a 2G 10GB iPod from 2002 that still works fine (even though the battery is nearly gone). Why can't Apple have a 16/32GB full sized flash iPod for battery life worriers who want to watch videos AND have a 80/100GB+ models for those who want to carry around their entire library, no compromises? Different markets, different products.
Keep in mind, though a 32GB SSD may be available next year for $250 (speculation), Apple requires that they make at least 300% if not 400% profit on all their hardware sales.
It will probably be another few years before we see large SSD ipods for reasonable prices.
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Cool but seriously I have my eyes on SSD drives now. Next year we can expect 32GB/64GB iPod. HDDs in iPod are wack because they fail and die easily.
If you think that a 32/64GB SSD iPod Video available next year at at least double the cost of the 80/100/120GB HDD based model (probably) due out this year will emerge, or is even a good idea then you are living in a fantasy world.
Sure HDDs have moving parts which inherently makes them less reliable than SSDs with their lack of moving parts, but 1.8" drive reliability well outweighs the high cost premium and low relative capacity of NAND.
Leonard Nimrod:
This month iAudio and Creative has announced their 16GB flash DAPs priced at $250, and they are on sale as we speak. Next year they will be doubling that to 32GB for the same price. Flash capacity has been doubled every year for devices like the iPod Nano. I live in reality land while you seem to have been living in a Cave.
1.8 inch HDDs in the iPods are very unreliable. My iPod photo died after 6 month and the replacement I got died after 1 year and 2 month. HDD failure is the most common death cause for the big iPod, resulting in a lot of warranty claims for Apple.
Therefor I bet that Apple are will be happy to switch to Flash for the big iPod as soon as the prices for the high capacity memory chips will go down to a reasonable level, which is at the second half of next year.
They tend to fail because they have crappy batteries more than because hard drive failure. And to Leonard's point, Steve isn't going to put SSDs in there if it doubles the cost and puts him too far out of price position. Even with Apple branded products, there is a price the market will bear.
I've had the hard drive die in my iPod Photo many times, and most times its been fixed with a firm whack on a solid surface. The problem isn't with the hard drive, its with the cable connecting it to the PCB.
Its still going to be a long time before flash can overtake hard drive in terms of space for your money.
Yet my nearly two-year old 30 GB iPod w/Video has not had any trouble with the hard drive or anything else. I'd hardly consider hard drives crappy or failure prone. I obviously have to agree that SSDs are tougher, though.
I've always had good experiences with hard drives for 20 years of computing. Out of about sixteen hard drives, I've only had one fail (spindle bearings gave out) after eight years.
I'd be happy to use that 160 GB drive in the next iteration of iPods.
@ Homeboy: "HDDs in iPod are wack because they fail and die easily."
Er...maybe if you put them in a blender (sorry). But seriously, hard drives have been in iPods since the very beginning, and just because 6 years on we can realistically speculate about large capacity flash based iPods, that doesn't suddenly make all the hard drive models unreliable and obsolete. I have a 2G 10GB iPod from 2002 that still works fine (even though the battery is nearly gone).
Why can't Apple have a 16/32GB full sized flash iPod for battery life worriers who want to watch videos AND have a 80/100GB+ models for those who want to carry around their entire library, no compromises? Different markets, different products.
Keep in mind, though a 32GB SSD may be available next year for $250 (speculation), Apple requires that they make at least 300% if not 400% profit on all their hardware sales.
It will probably be another few years before we see large SSD ipods for reasonable prices.