Apple has a broad assortment of iPods, ranging from its smaller flash-based players to the larger iPods with 30GB+ of storage. To reach these high capacities of the top model it’s economically unfeasible to use flash memory, but it’s a truth that may soon change. It at least seems that Apple is considering dropping the HDD technology all together, this since it has mechanical drawbacks and Apple will instead go for the Solid State Drive technology based on NAND flash memory. The use of NAND flash memory makes it possible to manufacture slimmer devices and the same time reduce power consumption.
The only real problem is that NAND flash memory is a lot more expensive than HDDs, but that Apple has been fast with adapting new technologies is no secret, at the same time it will hardly have a problem getting big rebates when doing its NAND flash shopping. Even if the prices still favor the HDD technology, Apple is said to be planning a switch at the end of the year but we will have to wait and see if it dares to go all the way.
“Tortora explained that a 30GB of HDD-based iPod is sufficient for around 40 hours of video content, but only has about 3.5 hours of battery life for video playback. He added that replacing the hard drive with flash memory would allow for an increase of about 60 percent in battery life to 5.5 hours of video playback.”
Apple is very excited about improving the battery time with its more advanced units but as usual we can’t expect any official statements about this. But then again we can’t imagine Apple would surprise many by launching SSD-based iPods at the end of the year.
