SanDisk’s New “Translucent” Look Memory Stick Pro Duo Cards Targeted
At Sony’s New PlayStation Portable (PSP) Console

SanDisk(R) Corporation announced today that it is entering the portable video
game accessory market and introduced a line of flash memory cards targeted at
the $25 billion dollar video game market. The announcement was made at a SanDisk
press conference at the annual Consumer Electronics Show where SanDisk is demonstrating
products in the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Booth #31438.

SanDisk’s entry into the video game market comes as companies that manufacture
portable video game consoles develop devices that include slots for standard
flash memory cards. The company has adopted unique game packaging and redesigned
the “look and feel” of the cards to spur sales among younger consumers.

Christina Day, SanDisk product marketing manager, said, “The new generation
portable game consoles now incorporate digital audio players, video players
and photo viewers. Our flash memory cards are a natural fit with these products
as game users need incremental storage for their music, video and photos. Consumers
also can use the cards to store their game content such as trailers and demos,
game levels and to download and store any data from the included WiFi connectivity
of the PlayStation Portable PSP(TM).”

She explained, “the addition of these features to the new generation of
portable game consoles is driving the demand for high capacity, expandable flash
memory cards. We think the sweet spot initially for card capacity will be around
128 to 256 megabytes (MB) as that typically will be needed to store game levels,
music and other non-gaming features of the machines. As the world’s largest supplier
of flash memory cards, SanDisk is well positioned to accelerate the growth of
this market.”

SanDisk initially is offering the new game cards in Memory Stick PRO Duo(TM)
and SD(TM), one of the most popular card formats. Sony’s first handheld game
device, the PlayStation Portable, has just been introduced in Japan and uses
Memory Stick PRO Duo cards. International Data Corp., a leading market research
firm, estimates that 8.8 million PSPs will be sold in 2005. Other popular portable
game machines, such as the Tapwave Zodiac and the Gizmondo, have slots for SD
cards.

The Memory Stick PRO Duo cards in game packaging will be sold in capacities
ranging from 128MB to 1 gigabyte (GB) with suggested retail prices from $39.99
to $159.99. SD cards for the game market will be sold in several capacities
from 128MB to 1GB with suggested retail pricing of $34.99 to $104.99. The cards
will start shipping to stores this month.

SanDisk’s new game cards will be sold in many of the 93,000 retail outlets
worldwide where SanDisk-branded products are sold. The company also intends
to sell the cards through new retail channels for SanDisk products including
game and toy stores and video outlets.

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,
CA and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.

SanDisk’s product images can be downloaded from http://www.sandisk.com/about/media.asp#photos.

SanDisk’s web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com.

Filed under: Mobile News

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!