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    SanDisk to Help Develop Memory SticksPosted By: Ed on Thursday, September 06, 2001 7:28:01 AM
SanDisk has announced that within the next two quarters they will begin selling Memory Sticks. In the beginning, Sony will just supply SanDisk with Memory Sticks that it will resell under its own brand through its retail channel. However, the two companies also agreed to jointly develop the next generation of Memory Sticks that will incorporate advanced features such as significantly higher performance and storage capacities. Suehiro Nakamura, executive deputy president of Sony Corporation said, "We are very pleased to announce the collaboration with SanDisk on Memory Stick. Our partnership with SanDisk, a world leader in memory cards, will allow us to increase Memory Stick market share and build a strong position to make Memory Stick as the standard of digital recording media in the world." SanDisk is the world's largest supplier of flash data storage products. It designs, manufactures and markets solid-state data, digital imaging, and audio storage products and sells them from 29 thousand retail outlets. In a related story, Hewlett-Packard recently announced a Memory Stick-compatible printer. The HP Photosmart P100 has a built-in Memory Stick slot letting users print digital photos directly from the Memory Stick and will be available in Europe in November. Last month, Samsung announced it will begin adding Memory Stick slots to its future products, including handhelds. Related Information:
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Article Comments
37 total comments The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PIC is not responsible for them in any way. login or register for free in order to post comments.  Once Beta'd, twice shy.slot_machine @ 9/6/2001 8:04:00 AM #
The Memory Stick is looking less and less like BetaMax.
They need SanDisk's help.I.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 8:32:18 AM #
They need SanDisk's engineers to beat Sony's people over the head. Sony's basically paying SanDisk to give thme some credibility in the market. Sony: "We need you to develop this whole new MemoryStick standard, because the current one is slow and crappy." SanDisk: "Well there this existing, fairly open, standard called Secure Digital that supports all of what you want." Sony: "No, we need to own it so we can license it out to everyone and fool consumers into thinking it's MemoryStick II even though it does nothing new for existing devices. Here's a lot of money to get the marketing BS rolling."  RE: They need SanDisk's help.I.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 8:58:57 AM #
somehow I dobut you are on the inside track and were privy to the negotiations... A more plausible scenarioI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 9:14:22 AM #
Sony: Would you like to make a ton of money from our huge install base? SanDisk: You betcha! 2c RE: They need SanDisk's help.I.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 9:19:13 AM #
Don't mind the original poster, he just needs attention. RE: A more plausible scenarioI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 10:25:25 AM #
The MemoryStick installed base is minimal in comparison to other flash media formats. Probably the most common device with a MemoryStick slot is a Sony laptop (at least in the US), and I'd bet 80% of the people with one don't even know what that slot is for. This is obviously a Sony media ploy. That's why they're essentially giving SanDisk current MemorySticks to sell under the SanDisk brand. In the US anyhow, SanDisk is seen as "the" flash memory producer, which will add false credibility to MemoryStick as being a common format. RE: They need SanDisk's help.I.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 4:25:05 PM #
Wrong. Memory stick is now #2 behind compact flash.
Companies Supporting the Memory Stick
Memory Stick Supporting Companies' List (174Companies) (as of August 24, 2001) Acer Incorporated plus: SanDisk RE: Companies Supporting the Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 9:39:19 AM #
Wow. It's surprising that there are a lot of car companies in the list. RE: Companies Supporting the Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 9:41:43 AM #
WOW! That was incredibly useful! Next time, just post the URL, eh? Save those maaad copy & paste skillz for MS Word. ;) RE: Companies Supporting the Memory Stick
It has more impact. ;) Yeah, I was surprised with the list too. RE: Companies Supporting the Memory Stick
What a useless list. I have no idea what "supporting" the Memory Stick means. It might mean Sony called these companies and said "We'll pay you $50,000 if you will sign on to our 'Memory Stick Support Club.' You'll receive free stickers and an excellent decoder ring." I doubt that the car companies on that list are going to be doing much marketing/development/sales of Memory Stick devices. RE: Companies Supporting the Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 10:02:10 AM #
Then the list would be longer ;) RE: Companies Supporting the Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 10:05:53 AM #
>>What a useless list. I have no idea what "supporting" the Memory Stick means. It might be as easy as a ("Memory Stick" and " RE: Companies Supporting the Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 10:11:33 AM #
That's ("Memory Stick" and "Company Name"). RE: Companies Supporting the Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 10:23:06 AM #
Regarding car companies, I found an aritcle from PCWorld dated 02/24/2000: Here's part of it: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,15450,00.asp RE: Companies Supporting the Memory Stick
Moosecat is right. Such a list does nothing unless you can point to *every* company on that list having released a product that uses MS/MG. It is hype. But I'm still glad to see being aggressive with MS. Now if only they could get the prices down even more! RE: Companies Supporting the Memory Stick
You forgot to add Epson to that list... they are currently the only manufacturer on the market that supports the memory stick in their photo printers (stylus photo 785ex).
I/O Standard for Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 9:43:25 AM #
I'm sure this is a stupid question, but does Memory Stick already have an I/O standard for other peripherals (ie, not just memory)? If so, this may not bode well for all of the m505 users. RE: I/O Standard for Memory Stick
You might be interested to see the I/O peripherals that Sony has in development, including one for Bluetooth: www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=1781 And also a digital camera, GPS, and fingerprint recognition ones: www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=1778 In the second story, it looks like development is taking longer than expected and these probably won't be out until next year. However, Sony is expected to release the Bluetooth MemStick at about the same time Palm releases its Bluetooth SD one. RE: I/O Standard for Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 10:43:03 AM #
" It seems like Sony has outlined the Memory Stick standard well." Care to point out which document at the site you gave specifies an I/O standard? There is not one there from what I can see. RE: I/O Standard for Memory Stick
They have detailed the MS format specifications on PDF files. Some requires though that you are a registered developer to view them. There are exerpts though (see Format Specifications (excerpt) area). RE: I/O Standard for Memory StickI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 2:54:46 PM #
I looked at the one format specifications document that I saw and all that it shows are file formats for the memory cards. Dumb things like how you lay out your MP3 files in the filesystem so they play in a particular order. If there was an I/O spec, I'd expect some third party would have developed (or at least announced) something supporting it by now.
Killer MovesI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 11:08:53 AM #
Sony is making all the right moves to establish the memory stick as the standard memory storage. Man Sony is just making Palm look silly with all these "logical" moves to establish itself as the premier PDA maker. RE: Killer MovesI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 11:58:56 AM #
Unfortunately, they're all the wrong moves for consumer's long term interests, and only geared at increasing Sony's licensing power and making Sony more money. RE: Killer MovesI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 2:19:26 PM #
not necessarily wrong for consumers - for example, sandisk has the right distribution capabilities to get the memory sticks in the right brick and click outlets so people can buy them - may be different that where sony distributes today (e.g. computer stores, etc.) - this is part of what sony is paying for RE: Killer MovesI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 11:30:29 PM #
Allowing companies to get monopolistic positions is always bad for consumers. You're probably glad that Microsoft got their slap on the wrist today too huh? Getting MemoryStick to more consumer outlets only serves Sony.
Palm vs Sony usersI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 12:09:43 PM #
I can sense that people posting here is either die hard SD/MMC users or die hard MS/MG users. It's hard to have an open mind if you side with something. RE: Palm vs Sony usersI.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 2:48:36 PM #
Unfortunately, there aren't nearly enough "users" of either technology yet, at least when it comes to peripherals. Really more of a standards thing.I.M. Anonymous @ 9/6/2001 11:35:02 PM #
SD is more of an open standard, MemoryStick belongs to Sony. In the long run, other businesses, manufacturers and consumers win out with a more open standard. SD is already designed to do most, if not all, of what Sony wants the next generation of MemoryStick to do. The current MemoryStick design and protocols are not even close in capability to what SD is designed to do. RE: Die Hard SD/MS users.I.M. Anonymous @ 9/7/2001 2:10:01 AM #
Actually, I'm a die-hard CF user. I've got a 56k CF Modem and a 32mb card for my TRG, complete with VFS support - I've had it for a while now.
If I /wanted/ a Ethernet card, they're available, and the drivers for several diffrent models are out of beta. Bluetooth CF cards are alledgedly 'In the works', but I've been around the computer industry long enough to not put too heavy a trust in what people /say/ they'll develop /someday/. That's why I bought a PDA that supports actual, exsisting standards with actual hardware already in production for them. Oh, and I heard that Handspring's new PDAs aren't going to have springboard slots on them. I'm sure that will do LOTS to encourage people to further develop for the interface. Good luck, guys.
Actual Size
The real question is are they going to use industry standard, or their standard when labeling the size? Currently they use 1,000,000 bytes as 1Mb. Binary though would say that 1MB = 1,048,576 bytes. On a 256MB card that would be 268,435,456 bytes, a 12,435,456 byte difference. So a 256Mb card is actually 244Mb. Why they change the standard to suit their purposes I don't know. http://www.sandisk.com/tech/faq_search.asp
RE: Actual SizeI.M. Anonymous @ 9/8/2001 12:42:32 PM #
My 128 Mb says it has 49152 bytes used and 129646592 bytes free, for a grand total of 129695744 bytes, not 128000000.
I don't know what the standard says, but I think it can't be 1000000 bytes/MB...
there's room for both but look what could've happened...
SD may be an open standard but Memory Stick looks like it will be a de facto standard. I really don't care if my memory has an SD or MS on it as long as I get enough of it and at a good price. On the other hand we will never see the equivalent of a CD for handheld devices because the 'damage' has been done. Sony isn't going to give up MS (remember they have an entire line of products that use it), Palm and Panasonic won't give up SD and there are many other devices out there that use CF. In the future I don't think I/O will be such a big deal because pda's will have bluetooth, wireless modem and all sorts of stuff already built in but it would've been nice if you could buy a card filled with games, etc and just plug it into any Palm device RE: there's room for both but look what could've happened...I.M. Anonymous @ 9/7/2001 10:01:44 AM #
For years, we've had ISA, PCI, PCMCIA and lately CF. This resulted in good competition in the computer industry resulting in better products and prices for all. I feel like we're on the virge of stepping back into the dark ages.
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