Comments on: Memory Stick Pro Earlier & Cheaper

Sony has announced that the new Memory Stick Pro format will make its debut sooner than previously announced and at reduced price levels. Look for the faster and higher capacity memory sticks to arrive in stores this month.
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cheaper?

graph @ 3/2/2003 11:15:32 PM #
Regular price for me is $100 MAX for 256mb and $199 MAX for 512mb.

CHEAPER for me is $80 for 256mb, $150 for 512mb. =)

RE: cheaper?
BlueAnon @ 3/2/2003 11:28:24 PM #
SD price is falling much faster than MS. It's already half the price at 128 MB. By next month when MS is actually being released, SD will be cheaper still.

It's proprietary, it wil never catch up against widely available SD consortium format.

RE: cheaper?
Tuckermaclain @ 3/2/2003 11:35:23 PM #
And the slick new SJ33 won't be able to use it? Too bad.

RE: cheaper?
graph @ 3/2/2003 11:45:07 PM #
it wont but you will get the state-of-the-art memory select. (sarcasm)

RE: cheaper?
UZI4U182 @ 3/3/2003 12:10:26 AM #
I think that's stupid that you have to take the stick out, move a switch, and pop it back in to access the other 128mb chip. Why couldn't they just put them together as one? Oh well, this is still better than lugging around 2 128mb sticks.

--Devan-- | UZI4U182@suscom.net
www.devanstavern.tk
www.devandeshong.tk
Current PDA: Sony CLIÉ PEG-SJ30
RE: cheaper?
graph @ 3/3/2003 12:18:58 AM #
Coz they cant put it as one. But atleast they couldve placed the switch at the end of the card where it sticks out from the device it that way it wont be necessary to remove it.

RE: cheaper?
aardvarko @ 3/3/2003 1:27:22 AM #
accidentally hot-switching could prove, uh, problematic.

-aardvarko
webmaster at aardvarko dot com
http://aardvarko.com
RE: cheaper?
M3wThr33 @ 3/3/2003 1:50:50 AM #
256MB SD cards are $62... About 1/3 the cost of memory sticks and about 3x as prevalent. With an SD card you can trade files between Palms, Handsprings, Kyoceras, Garmins and the Handera. Ms works with... Clies, Sony Cameras, Sony TVs and Sony sound systems.. and now the MS Pro's void most of that.

I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. We're in space.
RE: cheaper?
Rellik @ 3/3/2003 1:54:49 AM #
Keep in mind that these are the debut prices and what sony will sell them for. That means that you can probably find them cheaper like on ebay or something. And probably lexar will follow and produce these sticks as well, so the price will go down, but the question is when.

RE: cheaper?
UZI4U182 @ 3/3/2003 6:57:20 AM #
Hopefully Lexar will be smart and put two chips as one. I don't see why Sony can't, if the SD card manufacterers can, in a smaller package that what an MS is.

--Devan-- | UZI4U182@suscom.net
www.devanstavern.tk
www.devandeshong.tk
Current PDA: Sony CLIÉ PEG-SJ30
RE: cheaper?
Fammy @ 3/3/2003 9:22:37 AM #
Another day, another memory card format...

Did Fuji really need to make the XD card?

Compact Flash
SmartMedia
Secure Digital
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Duo
XD

I know I am missing something.

_____
Fammy

RE: cheaper?
Bumbleluck @ 3/3/2003 9:30:18 AM #
Sony can't put more than 128MB on a standard MS Stick. This is a limitation of the MS designa nd implmentation. Sony introduced the MS PRo line to get around this problem, as well as address I/O access.

No company can address or add more the 128MB using the old MS format.

RE: cheaper?
jaggrey @ 3/3/2003 10:53:17 AM #
Although I'll have my NX soon to replace my NR, I think I'll still go with the Memory Select thing, since I have a digicam that uses memory stick. This weekend I ran out of space on the regular stick and just took the one out of my Clie. That kind of convinience is invaluable.

Or I could just wait for my camera's replacement to come out in the next few months and just get that :)

University of Miami
2001 National Champions
34-0 and counting! Fiesta Bowl here we come!!!

RE: cheaper?
ganoe @ 3/3/2003 11:39:26 AM #
> I know I am missing something.

MultiMedia Card (MMC)

There are PCMCIA memory cards as well. Even then, we're probably forgetting some.

RE: cheaper?
slinky @ 3/3/2003 11:41:21 AM #
Time to ditch the CLIE. Ugh.. I don't know what to do. Memory sticks are incredibly slow and there is no question that memory sticks will forever be double the prices of popular memory formats. I'm very upset... there isn't much to choose from in Palm PDAs these days and the memory stick is one big fat loser.

RE: cheaper?
rsc1000 @ 3/3/2003 12:21:03 PM #
>>I'm very upset... there isn't much to choose from in Palm PDAs these days

One word : Garmin

RE: cheaper?
Altema @ 3/3/2003 2:01:22 PM #
"One word : Garmin"

Definetly cool, or there's the upcoming T|T2.

RE: cheaper?
cypher76 @ 3/3/2003 3:40:45 PM #
I don't know where you're getting your pricing information, but Memory Sticks have been consistantly cheaper than SD Cards, one of the reasons I'm a Clie user. Just go on Amazon, compared the cheapest 128MB Memory Stick (Lexar) to the cheapest 128MB SD Card (also Lexar). $39.99 after rebate for the MS,
$57.99 for the SD Card.
RE: cheaper?
cbowers @ 3/3/2003 9:02:53 PM #
Another one you missed was RS-MMC (RS=Reduced Size). Half the length of MMC, but with a simple extended RS-MMC can be put in an MMC or SD slot.

RE: cheaper?
TrafficGeek @ 3/3/2003 11:17:17 PM #
There's no valid technical reason I've heard of that'll keep them from doing a 256MB+ Stick.(okay, I have a day job, and admit not to have read every site on this subject. But I do enought work in this field so I know enough about this stuff to get in hot water :-> )

They've managed to put two physical memory on a stick, so it can't be hardware limitations. This has to be a software issue with the firmware and should be addressable with firmware upgrades to the devices.

Damage Control

TrafficGeek @ 3/3/2003 12:52:27 PM #
Too little too late.

"MemoryStick Pro, the new and Improved BETAMAX for the 21st Century."

RE: Damage Control
Rellik @ 3/3/2003 9:27:22 PM #
You don't think that sony products alone can fuel this new memory format?

RE: Damage Control
TrafficGeek @ 3/3/2003 10:54:57 PM #
Sony has very nice consumer products, no doubt some of the best product designers in the world. The failure of the MS-Pro will be due to Marketing, or what ever forces made the decision to abandon the older purple sticks. Sony have been shipping products using the old purple memory stick for what...five years now? According to their own press, they have x millions of device in circulation. Most people are not going to go out and buy another $300 -$900+ camera just so they have the honor of using the new media. Also, a lot of the early supporters have accessories that will not work with the MS-Pro. With the possible exception of the computers, most current users of Sony's consumer electronics are not going to switch over easily to MS-Pro.

In order for MS-Pro to get the same market penetration as the normal MS, Sony would have to rely on new customer and those who are purchasing replacement devices. This puts their push of this proprietary format pretty much back to square one. In the mean time, everyone who's been using the SD Card are enjoying all of their personal electronics with increasing capacity at regular intervals and all of their accessories will still work.

From a technology standpoint, if they can pack a chip(s) big enough to have two 128MB segments, they can build one with a monolithic 256MB capacity. Granted the I/O speed won't be as fast, but at least it shows consideration for legacy equipment owners. Right now this looks to us as no more then a out right money grab attempt on Sony's part to force everyone to buy new devices.

I will never knowingly spend another $0.01 on the new MS-Pro format. This is a common sentiment I've head from a lot of other legacy MS owners and folks sitting on the sidelines. Who's to say they won't do this again in the future w/MS-TNG (Memory Stick - The New Generation)?

RE: Damage Control
pontif @ 3/4/2003 2:26:27 PM #
Unfortunately it appears to be a hardware interface issue. The way the device talks to the memory stick. The older devices which use the purple memory sticks cannot address more than 128mb of memory, and the interface used in the purple memory sticks won't support more than that. Sony painted themselves into a corner with their design, and finally had to face up to it. SmartMedia did the same thing. SD and CF don't have these limitations in their design.

RE: Damage Control
mashoutposse @ 3/6/2003 2:13:23 PM #
Can a CF Type I slot read a CF Type II card? Of course it can't. These things happen -- it just happened earlier for CF and SD/MMC.

RE: Damage Control
orb2069 @ 11/19/2003 12:44:32 PM #
Can a CF Type I slot read a CF Type II card? Of course it can't.

Research first, kids.

http://www.camerahacker.com/CompactFlash/Type_II_to_Type_I/

That took all of 20 seconds with Google.

Readers

bigpaws @ 3/4/2003 12:01:56 AM #
And I just bought a 6-in-1 Sandisk reader. Pretty soon, I'll need 100-in-1 readers...AHhhh...

Bill
:-=>
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