Hard Drives Off Memory Lane

Now that movies, music and photos are all going digital, a battle is brewing over where consumers and businesses will store all their stuff.

Traditionally, consumers have stored such files on computer hard drives, but in recent years, flash memory has been gaining ground. Based on semiconductor technology, flash memory is faster, weighs less, and requires less power than traditional hard drives.

Those advantages were demonstrated to the hilt this past year when Apple (AAPL Quote) replaced its hard-drive-based iPod mini, the most popular product in its digital music player line, with the flash-based iPod nano. ...