Flash memory is not yet widely used in the general computing community, but with the predicted digital-camera boom it will become the ubiquitous flash that we do not see - the flash that doesn't cause redeye.
CompactFlash (CF) standard cards, which are about the size of a trackpad on a notebook computer, are becoming the digital film and voice tape and the tiny hard disks of cameras, audio recorders and handheld PCs.
The data-hungry digital cameras are likely to be the biggest chunk of the market. More than 12 million such cameras are expected to be sold in each of the next three years.
CF cards already are used by Hewlett-Packard in the latest version of the HP organiser, the 320LX, and by IBM in its Japanese-market hand-held computer, the PC110. The card's capacity ceiling, now 24 megabytes, would improve to 85Mb next year, according to manufacturer SanDisk.
Digital camera makers Canon, Fuji, Kodak, NEC, Samsung and Panasonic also have chosen to use CompactFlash in their latest models.
As the 70-odd member companies of the CompactFlash Association design new products that include these nifty little cards, end users will become greedy for more data capacity, more shots on the digital film and bigger audio-recording capability.