CD's are basically enjoying their last breath of fame. DVD's are taking over, and with DVD burners getting cheaper, people are going to stop using CD's altogether, except for music. DVD's still present a serious flaw, however... they move. Anything that moves like that is severely limited simply because of the costs involved in making such high speed equipment that's safe.

My prediction is that some sort of flash ROM is going to become the standard within a decade. You already see it in digital cameras and MP3 players. I'd even venture to guess that flash ROM will replace hard drives sooner or later as well, once it becomes much cheaper. You'll just plug a 100GB flash drive into your IDE channel, and there ya go... instant access, no noise, and no mechanical failure.