Are flash memory based portable media players set to rule the consumer market over there hard drive brethren in years to come? That seems to be the case according to market research firm iSuppli.

Chris Crotty, senior analyst of consumer electronics for iSuppli, sees the number of flash PMPs growing by a factor of more than 25 in the next five years. He says that, by 2011, this number is set to rise to 150.2 million units, 25.5 times as many as the 5.9 million in 2006. The number alone between this year and next will increase to 54.8 million units.

Hard drive PMPs, by contrast, will rise at a much more moderate rate, increasing to 35.3 million units in 2011, slightly more than the 29.3 million in 2007. Crotty equates the reason for this to the low price point of NAND flash memory costs, which in turn can make flash PMPs cheaper to make and cheaper to sell.

“NAND flash costs are nearing a point where makers of MP3 music players can add enough capacity to support video content, which requires significantly more storage than audio,” said Crotty. “The average cost of NAND flash memory will decline by 47.1 percent per year from 2005 to 2010.”

Crotty went on to predict Apple’s next iPod could end up being “new video capable flash players on the heels of launching its iPhone.”