Toshiba, Matsushita to Offer Smaller SD Cards
The SD Card Association, a group of about 500 firms dedicated to the promotion of SD Memory Cards, on March 13 announced a new mini version of the cards. The smaller SD Memory Card, which has about 60% less capacity than current cards, will be used mainly in mobile phones for recording image data. Association member Toshiba Corp will market a version with a 32MB recording capacity in June and another with a 64MB capacity in July.
It plans to introduce a 128MB version in October or thereafter. CONTINUE
COMMENTS: The SD card competes directly with Sony’s Memory Stick. Clearly, the move is a response to the growing need to store more data onboard mobile terminals. Why haven’t we already seen multi-megabyte memory cards on all manner of keitai? In a word: DRM – digital rights management – or the lack thereof. My sense from several recent discussions with carriers is that they are terrified of anything that would allow subscribers to use their phone as a Walkman and avoid downloading the music via the network (and thus paying packet fees); they are also very shy of being associated with anything that may be tinged by “music piracy.” In the meantime, as this item illustrates, technology is rolling ahead.
For an absolutely excellent overview of the fundamental issues involved, read Frank Rose’s story in the February issue of Wired: The Civil War Inside Sony