03-01-2004, 02:00 PM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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SanDisk & Motorola Produce New Flash Card Format
If you were asked what we really need in terms of new technology for PDAs & operable devices, what you answer? I bet it�s not another flash card format. :? But guess what? "Memory card maker SanDisk and cell phone manufacturer Motorola have teamed up on a new small flash card aimed at handsets as the two companies look to capitalize on the trend toward the miniaturization of memory cards. SanDisk formally announced the new format, called T-Flash, late Thursday. The new cards will allow portable devices to store data, such as digital images and audio. SanDisk expects the cards to be readily available in the second quarter, and Motorola intends to use them in new cell phones due out in the second half of the year." Oh goodie. :?
"The T-Flash cards will be about half the size of a cell phones' subscriber identity module (SIM) cards, or about the size of a fingernail, according to Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SanDisk. They will store 32MB to 128MB of memory and cost $14 to $39, the company said." Do they give you a free magnifying glass with it I wonder?
"Multiple incompatible card formats have created some confusion among consumers, but with Motorola's support, SanDisk has a good chance of gaining a foothold in the market for the new format, according to Jim Handy, an analyst with research firm Semico Research. Motorola is among the top five cell phone makers in the world." Confusion, no, really? :idontthinkso: Full speed ahead for plan fragmentation!
"Among the current card types are Memory Stick, Secure Digital, CompactFlash, MultiMediaCard, xD-Picture Card and Smart Media. There are also miniature versions of Memory Stick, Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard." You don�t say? So, how about making the formats we already have cheaper and with higher capacity? Anyone every heard of growing the pie rather than trying to take a bigger slice of a smaller pie? :frusty:
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03-01-2004, 02:42 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 784
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Wow, this is great news!!! :roll: :roll: :roll: :evil: :evil: :evil:
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T-Mobile Dash | HP iPAQ 4100 | HP iPAQ 2210 | HP iPAQ 1910 | Intermec 6651 | Toshiba E570 | Compaq iPAQ 3600 | Casio Pocket Viewer
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03-01-2004, 03:12 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 383
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One huge yawn for this project :sleeping:
/jizmo
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03-01-2004, 03:17 PM
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,878
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These people make it harder and harder to buy gadgets. For me, I will not even look at a device unless it supports the media I have already invested heavily in. I refuse to have to buy new media for a new device. That being said, I think the smallest card I would ever own is MMC/SD form factor. Anything else is just too small!
Steve
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"My eyes are rolling back in my head so far I can see my grey matter bubbling and frothing from reading this thread....bleh." JD
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03-01-2004, 03:23 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 165
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Goota go with Steven here...
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Steven Cedrone
These people make it harder and harder to buy gadgets. For me, I will not even look at a device unless it supports the media I have already invested heavily in. I refuse to have to buy new media for a new device. That being said, I think the smallest card I would ever own is MMC/SD form factor. Anything else is just too small!
Steve
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I've got to throw my vote in with Steven... I was a CF Type I guy with my old Pocket PCs... now I've got a few CF cards laying around (luckily my new digital camera reads CF Type I so it's not a total loss)... My New Pocket PC (iPaq 4155) has no CF slot, so I'm slowly making the switch to MMC and SD. But that's enough... Let's get the capacity up, price down, and speeds faster and forget about further fragmenting the market. It's only causing confusion among newbies (and even some of us seasoned users).
Sandisk, are you listening?
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03-01-2004, 03:57 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 349
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If SanDisk was really listening, they'd first improve on their quality control before they start developing new stuff. I've never bought a SanDisk flash memory device that actually kept data long enough to be useful. Defrag a card once, or perform a memory test on it, and I've got more bad blocks than a town in Atlanta, GA.
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03-01-2004, 04:07 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 598
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God this annoys me.
I have to deal with SD, Memory Stick, and xD cards as it is.
Why don't these people get their heads out of their butts and listen to the people who buy their products?
J'bm
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03-01-2004, 04:26 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 276
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...
So, the question you really have to ask is who is benefitting?
The easy answer is the companies envolved.
They make a different form factor, but the insides are pretty well known so cost is low, attach it to new models. This means the consumer has to weight the cost of the new models features against what they have already invested.
The hope is they get you with the feature set, buy new 'formats' that are cheap for the companies to produce yet create a new revenue stream from the consumer to the coffers. In addition once a person invests heavily enough in one 'format' they become locked into the companies that support that format, which can be a single company (i.e. sony).
So, in my mind, I can see why a company is doing it... and it isn't for my benefit. :roll:
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03-01-2004, 04:55 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 56
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If they could just make an SD card with say, 10x the cost per GB of a hard disk, then they would have all the SD pie already. :roll:
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03-01-2004, 04:57 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 10
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My easy solution to this is: I won't be buying any Motorola phones with this unnecessary technology, and I might boycott Sandisk too (I also have suffered with their poor quality).
SD is physically small enough - it just needs to be cheaper, higher capacity and a heck of a lot faster for the next generation of digital still and video cameras (already good enough for most PDAs).
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