Intel Fellow Speaks SSD Truth at IDF: SSDs “may never” compete with HDDs on cost/Gbyte

TechRadar.com reports that Intel Fellow Knut S. Grimsrud said SSDs “may never” compete with HDDs on a cost/Gbyte basis. Grimsrud spoke at this week’s Intel Developers Forum (IDF). He’s Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group Director of Storage. He suggested that the time when SSDs become cheaper than HDDs on a cost/Gbyte basis is "quite a way off" and that it "may actually never be the case" that the price crossover happens. Of course, that’s not news to readers of this blog and it’s certainly not news to anyone who has listened to analyst Jim Handy speak at MemCon or at other conferences. Perhaps now that someone at Intel has said it, it can become gospel.

However, that’s not really bad news for SSDs. At some point, said Grimsrud, reasonably priced SSDs may store enough to satisfy most typical PC user needs. When SSDs with capacities of 100 to 200 Gbytes cost as little as $30, suggested Grimsrud, then they may well suffice as the only drive in a laptop, netbook, or low-end PC.