Orlando, Fla. — Flash memory manufacturer SanDisk brought an expanded product line-up to PMA, courting both the demanding advanced amateur as well as entry-level users
The company added a 2GB card to its Memory Stick PRO Duo line and announced it will offer PRO Duo in its Ultra II line of flash products geared toward higher resolution, higher performance digital cameras.
Both the 2GB PRO Duo standard card and the Ultra II series cards (which will include the new 2GB card) will ship in the spring.
The Ultra II PRO Duo cards will be available in three capacities: 512MB for a suggested $119.99, 1GB, for $209.99, and 2GB for $479.99. These cards have a minimum read/write speeds of 10MB per second.
The standard 2GB PRO Duo will include a full-sized Memory Stick adapter and will retail for a suggested $359.99.
SanDisk also provided more details for the SD card with built-in USB port that it announced at CES last month.
The card will fall into the company’s Ultra II line of high-end memory cards and will be called SD Plus. The card works in any SD slot and can open to reveal a USB 2.0 pin that can be used in any USB port, allowing it to function as both memory card and USB flash drive. When used as a flash drive, the unit offers an LED that blinks during data transfer.
Ultra II memory cards offer write speeds of 9 MBps and read speeds of 10MBps.
SanDisk plans to ship a 512MB and 1GB card in April for a suggested $109.99 and $149.99, respectively.
Finally, the company augmented its Shoot & Store line of flash memory products aimed at mass market retail locations that were heretofore not flash distributors, like supermarkets and drug stores. The company added a 128MB CompactFlash card to its Shoot & Store line of entry-level flash memory products aimed at mass market retail locations. It will bill the product as “200-picture” card, based on the number of 1-megapixel images it can hold. It will retail for a suggested $19.99.
The company will also market a version of its Photo Album TV viewer under the Shoot & Store brand, for a suggested $49.99. The Photo Album, which can play MP3 files through the TV or stereo in addition to displaying photo slideshows, offers slots for “all major” memory cards in addition to a USB slot for USB flash drives.
In a further effort to drive photo archiving on flash memory cards, the company introduced plastic CD-sized jewel cases that can store up four CompactFlash cards or eight SD or xD-Picture Cards.
The cases will be sold with two 32MB cards for a suggested $19.99. The cases contain a soft plastic sleeve insert with slots for the cards, as well as a sticker indexing system to label each card. SanDisk will also sell standalone jewel cases at a later date for a suggested retail price “under $5,” the company said.
The new Shoot & Store products ship in March.
