Flash Makers Bow New Memory Sticks
By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 9/1/2003
New York — Rival flash memory manufacturers Lexar and SanDisk both announced last week that they will be manufacturing and marketing new Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO Duo flash memory cards.
Memory Stick Duo was designed, like the competing MiniSD format, with an eye to ever-shrinking products, principally 2.5G and 3G mobile phones, but also digital cameras and MP3 players. They are one-third the volume and one half the weight of a standard Memory Stick.
Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO Duo are equipped with MagicGate, a copyright protection technology that consists of authentication and encryption technologies. The authentication technology ensures that protected content is only transferred between compliant devices and media, and that protected content is recorded and transferred in an encrypted format to prevent unauthorized copying or playback.
The Memory Stick Duo offered by Lexar Media will be available immediately in capacities of 32MB, 64MB and 128MB, and utilizes a parallel interface for high speed data transfer when connected to host products with a parallel interface. It will be compatible with most existing Memory Stick Duo devices and Memory Stick devices when used with an adapter that is supplied with the product.
Higher capacity Lexar Memory Stick Duos will be available in capacities of 256MB for a suggested retail of $124.99 in September and 512MB for $299.99 in October.
Lexar PRO Duo cards in 64MB and 128MB will retail for a suggested $49.99 and $79.99, respectively.
SanDisk also expects to begin shipping cards in September. Memory Stick Duo cards from 32MB to 128MB will retail from a suggested $34.99 to $69.99 while the PRO Duo cards in 256MB and 512MB capacities will have suggested retail prices of $129.99 and $309.99.
Some of the first consumer electronics products that use the Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo cards include: Sony-Ericsson's P800 camera-phone/PDA, NTT DoCoMo's D505i & SO505i camera-phones, Sony Network Walkman Digital Music Player and the recently introduced Sony Cyber-shot DSC-U50 digital camera.
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