SanDisk Develops 2-GB microSD Mobile Phone Card

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SanDisk Corporation has developed a 2-gigabyte microSD card - the largest capacity of the world's smallest removable flash memory card - to meet demand for a new generation of MP3 music phones, including the forthcoming Verizon Wireless Chocolate by LG mobile phone. Using the SanDisk microSD card, the Verizon Wireless phone can store up to 1.000 digital songs downloaded from the company's V CAST music service. The market for musically-based mobile phones is stepping along at a lively pace. Strategy Analytics, a global research company, estimates that more than one-fourth of all handsets sold in 2006 will play music, and by the end of next year that number is projected to be more than half of all units shipped. Also, for 2006, an estimated 270 million mobile phones - about 29 percent of all new shipments - will have memory card slots, according to Chris Ambrosio, director of Wireless Device Strategies Service for the Boston-based research firm.

David Bullitt, SanDisk retail product marketing manager for mobile cards, said additional manufacturers will support the 2GB SanDisk microSD card with new models that will be introduced between now and the end of the year. SanDisk, he added, pioneered the development of mobile-specific flash memory cards and is the worldwide leader in the market. The microSD card was invented by SanDisk under the name of TransFlash but became a new standard last year when the form factor was adopted by the SD Card Association.

Apart from its retail line of mobile flash memory cards, SanDisk also announced the addition of a 2GB capacity to its OEM line of microSD cards, providing manufacturers with flash memory cards that range from 64 megabytes to 2GB. On the retail side, SanDisk offers capacities beginning at 256 MB. SanDisk's previous highest capacity was 1GB.

The microSD uses the latest advancements in flash memory technology to deliver the smallest memory card in the world. Measuring about one-fourth the size of a standard SD card, the fingernail-size microSD card provides high-performance and expanded memory capacity for mobile phones using SanDisk's TransFlash card slot or any new devices that are marked as microSD slots.

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