February 14, 2005 – SanDisk announced a new miniSD card today that has twice the capacity of the current card. The 1GB miniSD card is used mainly in cell phones, but comes with an adaptor that allows it to fit in a standard SD card slot in digital cameras and other devices. The new SanDisk miniSD card will be available for $99.99 in April 2005.
SanDisk is focusing on its smaller memory cards as digital camera and device manufacturers look for ways to trim the size and weight of their products. Marketing research firm IDC predicts the global market for camera phones with card slots to increase to more than 258 million units by 2006. The new miniSD card will allow the consumers to use the card in digital cameras, camera phones, music players, games, PDAs and other digital devices.
“The 1 GB miniSD card provides a level of storage that significantly enhances the features and usability of these full-featured mobile phones,” said Nelson Chan, vice president and general manager of SanDisk’s consumer and handset business. “For example, with a 1GB card you can store approximately 16 hours of MP3 songs, record up to several hours of MPEG-4 video or take more than 2,000 digital photos on a 1-megapixel mobile phone. With that level of capability, consolidating music, video, digital camera and other key features into the mobile phone platform is much more meaningful and powerful.”
