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[sonycowboy]

SanDisk Introduces World's First 2-Gigabyte Memory Stick PRO Duo Card and Launches High-Speed Ultra II Memory Stick PRO Duo Line

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=4826628

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 19, 2005--

Memory Stick Format Expands Beyond Digital Cameras to Other Electronic

Devices, Spurs Demand for More Memory and Faster Performance

With growing sales of high-resolution digital cameras, video camcorders and other electronic devices that require more memory and speed, SanDisk® Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK - News) today announced a 2-gigabyte (GB)* Memory Stick PRO Duo(TM) flash storage card and a new Memory Stick PRO Duo family in the SanDisk Ultra® II line. The announcements were made during the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show at the Orange County Convention Center, where SanDisk is exhibiting in Booth 2408.

*
The latest Memory Stick offerings, which are expected to ship this spring, give SanDisk the world's first 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo cards. That capacity will be available in both the existing Standard line and the new SanDisk Ultra II Memory Stick PRO Duo line, which provides faster read and write speeds for devices that can utilize them.

"Memory Stick PRO Duo continues to be a key format among flash memory cards, and given the wide variety of devices now using Memory Stick PRO Duo, SanDisk should find a receptive market for these faster and higher-capacity cards," said Stephen Baker, analyst for NPD Techworld, a research company that follows the electronics industry. "Memory Stick-enabled devices are likely to grow substantially in the near term, offering SanDisk growing sales opportunities."

SanDisk Ultra II Memory Stick PRO Duo

The new SanDisk Ultra II Memory Stick PRO Duo family is being offered in three capacities: 512 megabytes (MB), 1GB and 2GB. Suggested retail prices are $119.99, $209.99 and $479.99. These cards have minimum write and read speeds of 10MB per second. The Ultra II line is designed for digital still cameras that have resolutions of 5 megapixels and higher, including "prosumer" cameras that average 6 to 8 megapixels. Users can photograph moving objects more easily, although image quality depends on the make, model and speed capabilities of each camera.

"Sony continues to introduce cameras, such as the Cyber-shot® DSC-F828 and the new DSC-V3, that can leverage the fast Ultra II Memory Stick PRO Duo cards," said Tanya Chuang, a SanDisk retail product marketing manager. "We expect to see more digital still cameras with higher resolutions that can benefit from performance flash memory cards. As one of the innovators in Memory Stick PRO Duo design, SanDisk strongly supports this popular format."

 

[xabre]

$479.99 for a memory card? Thanks, but no thanks,

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

$479.99 for a memory card? Thanks, but no thanks,

I'll blow money on damn near anything but hot damn. I'll never buy that, I'm too prone to lose the damn thing

 

[Chittagong]

$479.99

:lol Jesus - with that price I could buy almost 20 UMD movies even though they are priced similarly with DVDs.

+1 PSP gaming usage
-1 PSP convergence story

 

[Lyte Edge]

Suddenly that $150 I spent on a 1gb memory stick pro duo seems like a bargain.

 

[Miburou]

What's the price on the regular 2GB Pro Duo stick?

 

[jooey]

What's the price on the regular 2GB Pro Duo stick?

ahem.

World's First 2-Gigabyte Memory Stick PRO Duo Card

 

[Miburou]

It only mentions $479.99 for the Ultra II stick. I don't see any price for the 2GB non-Ultra II stick.

 

[xabre]

What the hell would be the point anyway? You can get four hours of good quality video on a 1GB stick, the only real use would be for the people who need to carry around 500-600 songs where ever they go. Buy a couple of iPods instead.

 

[Sho Nuff]

How about a non-ultra version, eh?

BTW, it is REALLY hard to find the Sandisk 1GB one in Japan (on the shelves, anyway) in Akihabara.

 

[sonycowboy]

What's the price on the regular 2GB Pro Duo stick?

$359.99 Expect it to be at most $300 retail.

Memory Stick PRO Duo Standard

Designed for a wide range of electronic devices, many of them recently introduced by Sony and other companies, the SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo Standard line is ideal for memory-intensive use, and is offered in capacities of 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB and, now, 2GB. Products that have Memory Stick PRO Duo slots include portable game and multimedia systems (such as the new Sony PSP), mobile phones, digital camcorders, MP3 players, desktop PCs and laptops and printers. Suggested retail price of the new Standard 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo is $359.99, which includes a Memory Stick adapter that makes it compatible with all Memory Stick PRO devices.

As the proliferation of the Memory Stick PRO Duo format continues, the cards are used not only to save digital still photos but also to capture MPEG4 video clips, video games, music, audio books and even computer-generated word and graphics files. "SanDisk offers the widest range of Memory Stick PRO Duo cards, giving consumers the option to choose the most appropriate capacities for their applications," said Susan Park, SanDisk retail product marketing manager for the Memory Stick line. "Moreover, the introduction of the 2GB PRO Duo card reflects SanDisk's commitment to Memory Stick PRO Duo and to our objective of staying on the leading edge of technology."

SanDisk also manufactures Memory Stick PRO in Standard, Ultra II, Extreme and Extreme III versions, with capacities of as high as 4GB. As the world's third most popular flash memory card format, Memory Stick is now licensed by 595 companies as of mid-January, according to memorystick.com, a trade organization.

SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world's largest supplier of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.

 

[Miburou]

$359.99 Expect it to be at most $300 retail.

That's not so bad. The MSRP of the 1GB is $199, so that's less than double. I'd get one if I can find it for $200.

 

[kiryogi]

That's not so bad. The MSRP of the 1GB is $199, so that's less than double. I'd get one if I can find it for $200.

....boy you're getting ripped off like no tomorrow if you wanted it for MSRP

On another note, I think I'm happy with my 512 for the time being.......

 

[Miburou]

I was referring to the 2GB stick.

 

[Andrew2]

Its kinda interesting to here this bit of news coming from here in town(I live in Orlando). Anyhow,thanks for the news.

 

[imastalker co.]

man, buying 2 of those would be more than like buying every next gen system.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Comparing product specs, the Sandisk Ultra II standard appears to be exactly the same as Sony's "High Speed" standard.

For 5+MP cameras they make sense; 8x faster on reads and writes, with a really damned high temperature tolerance (good news if it's anywhere near a battery that runs hot). Sandisk touts a lifetime replacement guarantee on Ultra II sticks.

There's also some vague claim about increased battery life, and I haven't heard anything to say that the transfer rate on the PSP is locked in, so it will be interesting to test a large file (1GB+, maybe) with an Ultra 2 or Pro Duo High Speed and see if there are any speed or battery life improvements to note. (Note: 1GB Pro Duo HS is now down to $220, the realm of the reasonably insane).

 

[Reanimated]

500 bucks for a memory stick? Uh, no thanks. My 40Gb iPod cost less than that. :lol

 

[cvxfreak]

Um, no thank you. :O

 

[aoi tsuki]

New flash media is always expensive, especially if it's Memory Stick, especially if it's Duo. No shock here.

 

[neptunes]

I think I'll wait a couple years when it comes down in price.

 

[sonycowboy]

New flash media is always expensive, especially if it's Memory Stick, especially if it's Duo. No shock here.

Well,

it's not even particularly expensive. As Miburou stated, the MSRP's are

1GB = $199.99
2GB = $359.99

Since we've found 1GB cards for $115, it's not crazy to believe we'll find 2GB for $220 or so assuming a similar discount in a few months.

 

[Vibri]

The best news about this is that it should start forcing down the price of the 1GB cards. under $100 by summer I bet.

 

[Deg]

Dirt cheap

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Am I the only one actually amazed by how much stuff you can get into that tiny tiny piece of plastic?

I can remember the days of floppies... </oldtimer>

 

[The Faceless Master]

The best news about this is that it should start forcing down the price of the 1GB cards. under $100 by summer I bet.

yes indeed

 

[DarienA]

Am I the only one actually amazed by how much stuff you can get into that tiny tiny piece of plastic?

I can remember the days of floppies... </oldtimer>

Same here I was talking to the missus about that earlier. We now hold in our hands small solid state products that back in the beginnings of personal PC's have more storage space than many of those early machines...

 

[SKluck]

Memory stick sucks ass.

4GB Microdrive = $150. Thx bye.

 

[Wario64]

2GB....think of the porn...pornstation portable!

 

[Lord Error]

I just hope these 'ultra' sticks will actually be available, as opposed to Sony's which seem to exist only on paper. I will buy the 1GB one, but I'd like to get this faster variant.

4GB Microdrive = $150. Thx bye.

That thing eats through battery compared to flash memory.

 

[Sho Nuff]

Memory stick sucks ass.

4GB Microdrive = $150. Thx bye.

Got a microdrive to memory stick adapter? Please send it to me okthxbye.