http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/business-computing/27disk.html?_r=1

When Blu-ray was introduced in late 2006, a 25-gigabyte disc cost nearly $1 a gigabyte, though it is about half that now. G.E. expects that when they are introduced, perhaps in 2011 or 2012, holographic discs using its technology will be less than 10 cents a gigabyte — and fall in the future.



A 500GB laptop 2.5" drive is 89 bucks today which is 18 cents per gigabyte. In a few more years we're look at that halving. Where exactly is the room for yet another optical drive?

Optical disks are better for archival purposes. Hard drives are not permanent storage. After 5 years of inactivity, I wouldn't expect them to work at all. Rather than competing with Hard Drives, I think it's more likely that this disk will have to compete with cloud storage (internet) or Solid State Cards.

I really can't see cloud storage having the transfer bandwidth needed for our high data video needs.

Andrew

Optical disks are better for archival purposes. Hard drives are not permanent storage. After 5 years of inactivity, I wouldn't expect them to work at all. Rather than competing with Hard Drives, I think it's more likely that this disk will have to compete with cloud storage (internet) or Solid State Cards.

And tape is even better than optical for long term archival. Let's see

LTO-4 tape will run you $50 modest quantity.

So that's 800GB native storage at less than .07 cents a Gigabyte. Tape is king for archival for a reason and that is $$$$$

By 2012 LTO-5 will be out at 1.6TB per tape native. There's no chance for this tech to survive. It's a great PR piece for GE but they know it's not going to hit the market and gain traction.

CD got established in a big way, almost entirely because the major recording studios adopted the media for distribution of music to consumers (and consumers accepted it). DVD and BluRay (so far) got established in a big way, almost entirely because the major movie studios adopted the media for distribution of movies to consumers (and consumers accepted it). It just doesn't seem likely that this new technology will enjoy the same dynamic, for becoming established in a similarly big way.

CD and DVD (and BluRay so far) would never have attained anything close to the level of use they have, for computer data storage, if not for the recording and movie industries' prior adoption of the media for the purpose of distributing their products to consumers.

After 5 years of inactivity, I wouldn't expect them to work at all.

Why is that?
Being a sealed mechanical device, as long as they don't receive any G force trauma or extreem temperature change, I would expect them to last indefinitely. AFAIK, use is the single fastest degradation of a HDD. Not storage.