Flash memory is starting to be used in equipment that's not necessarily mobile or small, specifically challenging the hard disk drive in PCs and even enterprise servers in the datacenter.

　　As mobile technology has gained steam, it raised the profile of solid state memory. The use of NAND flash chips in mobile phones and other mobile devices makes sense because of the lower power consumption, lower space requirements, and increased ruggedness of semiconductor memory, even though the chips are least 50 percent per gigabyte more expensive than traditional hard disk drives.

　　Now that pricing limitation seems to be evaporating. According to market research company IHS, solid state disks (SSDs) will account for more than a third of worldwide PC storage shipments by 2017, about seven times what they are today. SSD shipments in PCs will rise to 227 million units in 2017, compared with 31 million in 2012, while shipments of PC hard disk drives will fall 14 percent, from 475 million in 2012 to 410 million in 2017.