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Say goodbye to disks?

Disks of various types have been the backbone of computing for decades.

The very first disks were units with fixed heads and platters that were a substitute for expensive RAM. A large metal disk was spun under an array of heads that effectively created a FIFO storage system which was as wide as the number of those heads.

Storage was measured in just a few thousand bytes and access times were limited -- but still, it was far more cost-effective than any other form of memory at the time.

Eventually disk technology advanced and became a lot cheaper. Once temporary store (RAM) became cheap, the disk replaced tape (paper and magnetic) as a random-access backup store. Most people will have seen pictures from the 1960s and 1970s where huge "disk packs" were swapped in and out of washing-machine sized drives. Believe it or not, many of those packs had as little as 5MB of storage.

Floppy disks also became the primary method of delivering software in the early days of the microcomputer era and capacities grew rapidly from 128KBytes on 8" media to 1.44MB on 3.5" disks.

And these days we have hard-drives with multi-terabyte capacities as well as optical disks that cost peanuts and will allow even the most bloated code to be easily shipped and installed.

Disk-based media has also become the mainstay of the home entertainment industry with CDs overtaking LPs in the audio sector and the DVD totally destroying the market for pre-recorded VHS tapes.

More recently, the movie industry has been pushing the HD BluRay format as an alternative to the humble DVD and one can't argue against the fact that the "upgrade" can be visually stunning.

However, as in so many things, the Net and solid-state memory is becoming a game-changer.

Music downloads are already decimating the sales of physical media. It is simply more convenient to log in and download your favourite music directly onto your i-device than it is to go out, buy a CD then rip it to the same device. Once on that device, your tunes are safely stored in silicon -- immune to scratches and the other dangers that always pose a threat to disk-based content.

The same situation exists with software. Virtually all the software I've purchased in the past five years has been delivered by "download" -- which suits me just fine.

Downloads have meant that I've been able to buy directly from the creator and bypass the alarmingly high mark-ups that often hiked the price of software purchased locally on disks.

For example, when I purchased my video editing software I simply jumped online, went to the US Sony website, handed over my credit card and within a few short minutes the software was installed and running on my PC. If I'd wanted to, I could have opted for a physical disk-based package but there'd have been extra shipping costs and a 2 week delay while it was shipped half-way around the world.

Even in the area of movies, the disk is rapidly going the way of the dodo and the arrival of UFB (when it finally gets here) will likely be the coup de gras to disk-based entertainment.

With UFB at your fingertips, even the HD splendour that is presently the exclusive domain of BluRay disks will be available quickly and cheaply by way of digital download.

Actually, to be honest, even with our crappy ADSL connection, we've found our own purchases of DVDs has dropped dramatically since installing the Android-based media box, and I suspect we're not alone.

On the few occasions that I've visited the local video rental store in town it has been eerily deserted -- a stark contrast to the crowds that would be browsing the shelves on a Saturday evening just a few short years ago.

I feel sorry for the nice lady who owns that DVD rental outlet. The value of her business has already declined significantly and I doubt she'd be able to sell it now -- given that the writing is very much on the wall for the future of entertainment.

The disk is (all but) dead.

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