Sony Announces Support for CompactFlash cards

[Suhit Gupta]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/16/sony-announces-compactflash-cards-as-hell-freezes-over/

"Sony just announced support for yet another new memory card format today -- fortunately, it's only new to them. Available later "this Spring," Sony will introduce their first CompactFlash memory card. A move foreshadowed by Sony's entry into the high-end, consumer digital camera business with their alpha α100 -- a DSLR lacking direct support for Sony's Memory Stick. The new Type I CF cards will share the same α branding and will hit 66x and 133x transfer speeds with capacities between 1GB and 4GB. So, does this signal the end of their proprietary Memory Stick format? You wish."



I think a collective sigh-of-relief was just let out across the world. However, I wonder about two things - 1) Will Sony now reduce support for the Memory Stick? i.e. they were trying to integrate MS into all their TVs and gaming devices, etc. Will that stop now? 2) Will Sony cameras become a lot more popular at the expense of Canon/Nikon/etc. since they have a strong brand name and now the memory format isn't the gating factor in picking Sony cameras?

[Suhit Gupta]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/16/sony-announces-compactflash-cards-as-hell-freezes-over/

"Sony just announced support for yet another new memory card format today -- fortunately, it's only new to them. Available later "this Spring," Sony will introduce their first CompactFlash memory card. A move foreshadowed by Sony's entry into the high-end, consumer digital camera business with their alpha α100 -- a DSLR lacking direct support for Sony's Memory Stick. The new Type I CF cards will share the same α branding and will hit 66x and 133x transfer speeds with capacities between 1GB and 4GB. So, does this signal the end of their proprietary Memory Stick format? You wish."



I think a collective sigh-of-relief was just let out across the world. However, I wonder about two things - 1) Will Sony now reduce support for the Memory Stick? i.e. they were trying to integrate MS into all their TVs and gaming devices, etc. Will that stop now? 2) Will Sony cameras become a lot more popular at the expense of Canon/Nikon/etc. since they have a strong brand name and now the memory format isn't the gating factor in picking Sony cameras?

[Damion Chaplin]

1) Probably not. Sony has millions invested in their own proprietary format. I'd be surprised if they gave it up now. After all, they still have the PSP...

2) Definitely not. Sony's first camera that took Compact Flash was the DSC-F828. It was released 4 years ago. Have Sony cameras gained popularity or marketshare since then? Nope. In fact, since then, they've only released one other camera (AFAIK) that takes CF - the alpha a100. The DSC-F828 was the last in it's line.

I think Sony is just realizing that CF cards are top-sellers and that there's money to be made in them thar cards.

On the other hard, with temperatures around here being what they've been over the last couple weeks, it wouldn't surprise me if Hell froze over...

[mcsouth]

Apparently the recent mid-west ice storms have a broader influence than reported - I think I just heard the devil begging for heat!

The Memory Stick issue has been the primary reason why I have never seriously considered a Sony digital camera - although the pricing has improved, I can remember in the early days of SD cards, walking into a dept store, and seeing Memory Sticks at twice the price of SD cards for any given capacity - I haven't checked prices lately, but considering that I just bought a 2GB SD card a few months ago for less than $40, I'm certain that Memory Sticks are still pricier - a quick search of NewEgg shows 1GB Memory Stick Duo's going for more than 2GB SD cards.

I understand the whole idea behind proprietary technology - you own the rights, so licensing fees and locking consumers to your technology can have positive impact on your balance sheet.......but sometimes proprietary technology can hurt your balance sheet too if it causes some consumers to ignore your products for that reason.

[PeterB666]

Originally Posted by Damion Chaplin

In fact, since then, they've only released one other camera (AFAIK) that takes CF - the alpha a100. The DSC-F828 was the last...

I will have to tell my DSC-V3 to stop using the CF card that I have in it.

There is also the DSC-R1 which is still available.

The move to CF is a little surprising as we are even seeing this start to be dropped from some of the newer dSLR cameras. With the price of all types of digital camera memory quite cheap compared to just a couple of years ago, and with no obvious stagnation in the decline of price per mb, I don't really see the logic in this unless Sony have these supplied from a ?OEM manufacturer.

While once the cheapest memory card per mb, CF cards now sell in such small volumes that pricing is between SD and Memory Stick. I am not referring to Sony CF cards in particular. I have no idea of the pricing but I expect that by Sony's normal standards, they will try selling them at a premium.

[jlp]

Originally Posted by mcsouth

...


I understand the whole idea behind proprietary technology - you own the rights, so licensing fees and locking consumers to your technology can have positive impact on your balance sheet.......but sometimes proprietary technology can hurt your balance sheet too if it causes some consumers to ignore your products for that reason.

Licencing had ZERO effect on their balance sheet: you can count on your left hand fingers the number of digital devices (not counting adapters, just PDAs, digicams, etc.) sold by non Sony companies. Who would want to use a much inferior technology (MemorySH!T was limited to 128 MB before SanDisk helped them making the Pro series), and whose licence most certainly did cost much more than CF or SD. MemorySTINK also came well after SM, CF, MMC, SD. Also even early on Sony had so many different and mostly incompatible substandards: MagicHATE, Duo, Pro, Pro duo, and now the ludicrous MemorySINK Micro (M2), etc.

Last time I counted they had over 8 different versions, each mostly incompatible with each other as I said.

Many people were badly burnt by the necessity to buy other digicams, etc. when the MemorySICK Pro was introduced after the 128 MB size limit was pressing hard on Sony to go further, because the legacy devices could not use the newer MemorySTING Pro cards.