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The digital media waters continue to stir with yet another major introduction, this one from SanDisk Corporation, who today unveiled a 4GB miniSD High Capacity (SDHC) flash card at the CTIA Wireless Show.
The new 4GB SanDisk miniSDHC card is to be able to provide the fast speed and large capacity required to support increasingly popular but storage-intensive applications such as digital imaging, music and video record/playback functions as well as mobile television and videogames. The 4GB capacity can store more than 2,000 high-resolution pictures, more than 1,000 digital songs or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video.
"The 4GB miniSDHC card represents a significant technological breakthrough and highlights the growing need for large-capacity, high-speed storage for the mobile phone market,” said Yoram Cedar, executive vice president of handset business and corporate engineering at SanDisk. “SanDisk is responding to the next-generation demands of cell phone makers and as their camera, video player, gaming and music devices."
"The new 4GB miniSD card from SanDisk allows handset manufacturers and mobile network operators to plan rich media services for their customers,” said Gerry Purdy, vice president and chief analyst, Mobile and Wireless, Frost and Sullivan. “Four gigabytes of memory is the threshold for providing adequate storage to support music, video, gaming and other exciting applications in the handset."
SanDisk is now sampling the new 4GB miniSD card to OEMs such as major phone manufacturers and mobile network operators (MNOs). Retail release of the card is planned for 2007. Though standard miniSD and miniSDHC cards look identical in size and shape, only SDHC-compatible products will be able to accept the new miniSDHC cards. Engineering samples will be available for evaluation, as mobile phone makers will need to upgrade the firmware in their handsets so that memory slots can support the new card. OEM pricing has not been determined yet.
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