Windows Phone Thoughts: Memory Made Of... Plastic?

Yes, you read that correctly. ;)

"A new memory technology promises to store more data at less cost than the expensive-to-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets including digital cameras, cell phones and portable music players... Unlike flash memory found in consumer devices, the new technology can be written to only once, though it can be read many times. It acts in that respect like a non-rewriteable compact disc. But the new memory, which retains data even when there's no power, won't require a power-hungry laser or motor to read or write, and promises more capacity."

It doesn't look like it'll be a replacement for silicon anytime soon, but for write-once solutions, it might be a cheaper solution. Of course, the real question: is there a market for theoretically cheap write-once memory? There was a lot of fanfare for DataPlay, but it seems to have gone nowhere. Nevertheless, it's good to see new innovations in materials science... and there's a mention that they're working on write-many solutions as well in the long-term.