Every year, it seems a new part comes to the fore.

Last year it was the hard drive. Between TiVos and the iPod, it seemed everyone was buying a new device with a big honking hard drive in it.

This year the product of the year is flash memory. It has many of the same applications, and the new iPod Nano is all about the flash. (Oh, yes, I like them in the pictured application, the "stick drive.")

But when the devices become as small as the Nano, you're really talking phone. That's where Intel is pushing its latest flash chip. It is going to face stiff compeitition in this niche, from the likes of Samsung and others, but competition is the secret sauce of Moore's Law. When companies become dominant in any niche, progress always slows down, and prices don't fall as fast as they might.

Flash actually has some distance to go as a part. Look at the Nano, then compare its price-capacity to the same company's hard drive-based models. You're paying more for less. But you're gaining in reliability, and in durability (if the screen don't scratch).

The phone memory business would look a lot better, by the way, if the carriers were more competitive, and if they were offering real Internet access, as opposed to a walled garden. But don't ask them for it. Companies are about profit maximization, not customer satisfaction. Let's find more competition for them, instead.

The flash memory producers will benefit.