(Special Report) - There are two varieties of MP3 players: flash and hard drive. While hard drive based players pack in a lot more storage than flash players, some people (generally athletes) prefer flash players because of their ruggedness. Since hard drive based players have mechanical components inside the drive, they are comparatively delicate. Flash based players, on the other hand, have no mechanical components and are thus considered to be rough-and-tough, which suit joggers just fine.

The problem with flash players is that they were starting to hold back. That's not because of the lack of features or audio quality, but it was due to onboard storage capacity. While flash can't compete against the 30GB or 60GB versions of the iPod, it can definitely take on the more minute 4GB models.

According to SanDisk and a plethora of other flash player manufacturers, 2006 will be the year of onboard storage expansion for the aforementioned devices. 4GB will become mainstream while there might be a possibility of 6GB models, though none of the companies we talked to openly admitted to that fact.

If you are in the market for higher capacity flash players, 2006 will be a fruitful year for you.