SanDisk Bows More CF Cards, Bundle Deals
By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 10/22/2001
Sunnyvale, Calif.— Another volley was fired in the competitive flash-memory marketplace last week as SanDisk announced a new line of premium CompactFlash cards and several new bundle partners.
SanDisk's new Ultra CompactFlash line is specifically designed for use in high-performance, higher-resolution digital cameras. According to the company, the new cards have a sustained write speed of up to 2.8MB per second (more than twice the sustained write speed of SanDisk's standard CompactFlash products) and will be sold in the Type I CompactFlash form factor with capacities from 128MB to 512MB.
"The technology behind SanDisk Ultra CF cards employs advanced controller algorithms to enhance the performance for use in the latest generation of new high-megapixel digital cameras," said Nelson Chan, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at SanDisk.
The company also announced that it will provide Nikon with CompactFlash cards for Nikon's newest high-end digital camera, the Coolpix 5000. A 32MB SanDisk CompactFlash card will be included with each camera sold.
The Coolpix 5000 is a lightweight digital camera with a magnesium-alloy body, and it is expected to be available in November at $1,099.95.
SanDisk works closely with many of the major camera manufacturers for bundle and other deals, in an effort to build brand amidst tightening margins in the flash memory market. Currently, the company has deals with HP, Kodak, Canon, Nikon, Konica, Epson, Pentax, Sanyo, Casio, Minolta and Samsung, among others.
The company also announced an agreement with Compaq Computer Corp. to provide them with Secure Digital (SD) flash memory cards for the new H3800 member of the iPAQ Pocket PC family. The new iPAQ Pocket PC was introduced earlier this month at the Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 launch in San Francisco. Compaq will offer the cards as an optional accessory.
The new iPAQ Pocket PC H3800 series features a standard SD memory card slot for memory expansion. An expansion slot for removable SD cards is included so customers have an expandable storage option for data, backup files, digital music and other content. More than 90 products to date, from a variety of manufacturers, have been introduced with slots for SD cards.
