It hasn’t been that long since the first hard disk-based digital music players were first introduced – remember, the Apple iPod is just over six years old.
But now, the end of hard disk-based music players may be near as flash-based solid state drives (SSD) get larger and are put into portable devices from notebook computers to digital media players.
Creative may push the flash storage capabilities even further with its latest Zen digital media player, which is expected to hit 32GB, according to rumours.
Creative won’t confirm anything officially but it did post details about the new Zen player on its site, alongside the usual 4GB, 8GB and 16GB versions. The 32GB player info has since been removed.
Even if Creative isn’t working on a 32GB flash player, then it’s certain that somebody is. A 32GB upgrade would be a logical step for the next Apple iPhone or iPod touch to take, for example, and Toshiba said in August that it would have 64GB flash drives available by 2009.
