the sweetspot for any technolgy is $100.00 dollars. Then it will be able to compete and defeat the smallest raptors. Right now they are almost there in reliability. But price will slowly come down and they will be mainstream in about 5 years when windows 8 rolls around.
Two technologies I know your waiting for, MRAM and Memristors. They will solve the issues you mention.
It can mean they've entered the retail channels in large numbers, such as the article mentions. Take a look at most vendors sites....say for example laptops. Already a large percentage of netbooks and ultra portables come with the drives. I have quite a few nursing agency clients, and I've been using 12" ultra portable models for the past 6 months for their staff. They're not that much more expensive when purchased OEM with a new laptop, and the performance is awesome. Especially for laptops users, snaps right out of hibernation. More durable for portability too.
