Are SSDs in netbooks on the way out?

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Analysts in Asia have reported that the usage of SSDs in netbooks has fallen dramatically in 2008 and will continue to do so next year.  This matches our own observations where we find more netbooks available today with HDDs in place of the SSD.  The first netbooks that appeared on the scene all had SSDs and the popular outlook was that SSDs would proliferate and dominate the market.

That is clearly not the case and there are probably a number of simple reasons we can cite.  Capacity would be the biggest reason as SSDs that are cheap enough to be installed in netbooks are much lower capacity than their HDD counterparts.  SSDs are also much more expensive when produced in capacities that rival that of cheap HDD as are being used in netbooks and in the low-margin world of netbooks cost is everything.  Lastly a lot of the SSDs that have been used in netbooks so far have been really slow compared to HDD competitors.  This is no doubt a cost thing and it is easy to find comparisons of netbook models that show the HDD version outperforms the SSD version, especially when Windows is the operating system used.

The numbers thrown around by the Asian analyst DRAMeXchange are quite telling.  They show that in Q1 of this year 70% of all netbooks shipped with SSDs.  This figure dropped in Q2 to 66% and then plunged to only 30%.  They predict that this trend will continue and that in Q1 of next year only 10% of shipping netbooks will contain SSDs.  A year ago no one would have figured that would happen.  It goes to show what we say often, netbooks have become simply small notebooks and consumers are demanding similar capabilities they get with “regular” notebooks.

(via Register)

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