As cool as first generation technologies may be, there are also some drawbacks.

According to Macworld UK, laptops with flash-based solid state drives are being returned at an alarming rate. The primary reasons cited are technical failures and performance shortcomings, as reported in a study released this week by brokerage firm Avian Securities, which covers the high-tech and aerospace industries.

The report cites that an unnamed large manufacturer is seeing return rates as high as 20 - 30 percent on solid state-drive-equipped notebooks. Returns due to technical failures appear to be between 10 and 20 percent, 10 times higher than the failure rate for conventional hard drives.

The other 10 percent of returns were due to lack of expected performance gains, per the report. Flash-based solid-state drives are built to be significantly faster than disk-based drives due to factors such as a lack of moving parts.

A Dell spokeswoman who stepped forward to comment noted that "SSD technology is new and will have growing pains."

The spokeswoman then defended the technology and said that its drawbacks are rapidly fading, citing doubled capacity and expected price drops as SSD systems become more widely used. Though the first generation of SSDs performs near the levels of 5,400 RPM hard-disk drives, Dell last month announced out the faster Dell Flash Ultra Performance SSD, based on Samsung's SATA II-SSD technology, in 32 and 64 gigabyte capacities.

The new drives are expected to deliver a 35 percent performance gain over a standard 2.5" 5,400 RPM laptop hard drive.

Apple currently incorporates a solid-state drive as a build-to-order option in its MacBook Air laptop.

If you have a solid-state drive story of your own, let us know over in the comments or forums.