Memory Stick Starting to Catch On

According to data from market researcher NPD Intelect, Sony's Memory Stick is starting to make make progress in the flash memory market. A year ago, the MemStick has just 7% of the market but now it has 25%.

Last year, CompactFlash had the lion's share of the market with 51% and Smart Media was a close second with 41%. But the MemStick has cut into both of these. Now, CompactFlash has 40% and Smart Media has 32%.

The SD card is still so new it barely made a ripple on this year's figures. This is expected to change as more devices ship with SD slots.

Total shipments of MemSticks are expected to reach 10 million by the end of June.

Sony will soon no longer be the only MemStick manufacturer. Both Fujitsu and Lexar Media have licenses to make them. They had to pay for a licencing fee but don't have to pay royalties.

"People are waiting to see which media technology is going to win, and what we are seeing is that Memory Stick has been gaining share while the share of CompactFlash and Smart Media has been declining," said Lexar spokesperson.

Fumio Ohtsubo, Matsushita's managing director, admitted that SD Card shipments have been dwarfed by Memory Stick's. So far, his company has made only 250 thousand. Still, he predicted that 160 million SD cards would have been sold by 2006, capturing 50% of the market.

Matsushita is working to cut into the MemStick's lead by dropping their prices.

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MMC = Smart Media

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 1:08:24 PM #
I plan to buy a M505 and a digital camera at the same time so they can share the same memory card. I see only 1 camera (Panasonic) using SD card. From what I understand, MMC is an older standard also supported by M505. Is MMC the same as Smart Media? If not, what uses it?



RE: MMC = Smart Media
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 1:30:03 PM #
One word: NO.
MMC (MultiMediaCards) is the "old version" of SD. I think
they have the same form factor and so on, but they aren't
"secure". MMC have been used in some MP3 players, but I haven't
heard of any digicams so far (but am certainly no expert).

I was surprised, though, to read that MMC/SD combined have
so tiny a market share that they don't even appear in
the numbers...

It's about time that Flashmemory Standard mess gets cleaned
up. I alone own three different standards of flashmemory
(CompactFlash, Smartmedia and Memorystick). I like Sony,
and since now there are other Memorystick manufacturers,
pricing may become somewhat more competitive.


RE: MMC = Smart Media
mondo @ 6/15/2001 10:10:39 PM #
The difference between MMC and SD is not only that MMC does not support secure functionality, it is also a slower standard.

Additionally, the SD format will also IO for peripherals.

-----
Des Paroz
Sydney, Australia

sony stick sucks

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 1:29:33 PM #
i hope it doesnt catch on. the way they built those things, they are way to fragile for me and most americans and definately little american kids.. the memory stick is exposed.

the SD one is built a lot better but i still dont relish something so tiny to hold my data.

RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 1:45:19 PM #
I agree. I love Sony products but don't like these standards wars that go on. I hope SD wins out.

RE: Smart Media Card
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 2:23:13 PM #
> the SD one is built a lot better but i still dont relish something so tiny to hold my data.

I lost a $50 Smart Media Card with all my data. The damn thing was so small it must have slipped out of my case and I never noticed it. Or I put a piece of paper on top of it and forgot about it. But the SmartCard has one big advantage over the others: the replacement goes in my wallet. It handles being sat on all day just fine. Try that with your SD card or Memory Stick!

-Dr. Bob

RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 2:27:18 PM #
ditto

RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 4:17:19 PM #
Amen

sony stick sucks...NOT!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 4:59:13 PM #
I hope the memory sticks catches on. it's a great product and has SONY's gaint resource behind it. I hope, and it certainly looks that way, that the memory stick become a standard. SONY rules...everthing else drools.

RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 5:22:32 PM #
so far sony has been at the pda market for 1-2 years? where is all their product support? still no gps, cam,keyboard,modem, wireless connect? Oh wait, the have a super-fragile, super-expensive memory stick that is incompatible with it's own product until you down load the drivers...

RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 8:57:01 PM #
Sony admits their first entry was horrible. I think they fully intend on supporting the nx10c series to its max. This will be another blow to Palm hardware sales.

RE: sony stick sucks
mondo @ 6/15/2001 10:13:10 PM #
the new Palm wallets for the m50x series have slots for SD cards. Not sure how effective or useful these are at the moment, but its a step in the right direction.

-----
Des Paroz
Sydney, Australia
Stop posting misleading information.
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 1:04:13 AM #
>Oh wait, the have a super-fragile, super-expensive
>memory stick that is incompatible with it's own
>product until you down load the drivers...

1. Super-fragile?
As compare to what? I can guarrentee you that SD card are the same if not more delicate than memory sticks.

2. Super-expensive?
If you do a search for prices of memory stick and SD cards, they only differ slightly in price.

3. Incompatible?
I think you are talking about SD cards.

I took pictures on my SONY camera, pulled out the memory stick that the pictures are stored on, insert the memory stick into my Clie, and view the pictures in my Clie. How's that for compatibility?

*****
I think you should check you information before actually posting them.



RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 6:44:50 AM #
The fact is, memory stick will win and the price will
be cheaper and cheaper. SONY will introduce many MS-compatiable devices within this year. SD ? no way ...

http://www.yapn.com.tw/forums/thread.asp?forumid=65&threadid=25028

RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 1:24:16 PM #
Perhaps you mean they'll catch on in Taiwain, because that's what .tw stands for genius.

RE: sony stick sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 4:10:01 PM #
Actually, those facts are for memory sticks everywhere, "genius".

MemoryStick speed vx MMC speed

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 3:45:54 PM #
Is the MemoryStick any faster than the MMC? I have a m505 (which I like but which has it's faults) and probably the biggest fault is how SLOW the MMC card access is. Whether this is a problem with the hardware or with the sotware (basically, there IS no Palm MMC software worth mentioning, I use PowerRUN and MsMount) I can not say. But if the MemoryStick is as fast as FlashROM then it would be a big improvement over SD/MMC.


RE: MemoryStick speed vx MMC speed
mondo @ 6/15/2001 10:14:22 PM #
I believe that the memory stick is faster than MMC, but is comparable to SD.

SD is definitely faster than MMC

-----
Des Paroz
Sydney, Australia

RE: MemoryStick speed vx MMC speed
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 10:54:01 PM #
Are you talking Real World, noticible on the m505 faster? I mean specifically, if sell my 64mg MMC and buy a 64mg SD will I actually notice a difference in speed or is that some sort of tech-sheet thing? I gathered from the usegroups that in real life, they are equally as slow. And really, they are pretty horribly slow

RE: MemoryStick speed vx MMC speed
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 1:04:38 AM #
I can't really speak from experience, although I just ordered a 64MB SD card, but I understand the difference. The transfer speed for the MMC chip is limited by the fact that it has a single data channel of the 7 total channels on the chip. The SD format has the ability to have 4 channels, each with a speed limit the same as the MMC's single channel. This will allow for up to 4 times the transfer speed. The question, and I do not know the answer to this, is whether any manufacturer and the m505 for that matter actually use more than a single channel for data transfer in SD. My suspicion is that there is little actual difference in the current offerings.

Anyone out there with more knowledge about current SD?

RE: MemoryStick speed vx MMC speed
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 4:45:22 AM #
64mg Memory stick? Sounds like a drug to me.

The only reason it's that high is.....

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 5:22:47 PM #
They package 8 meg sticks with
1. Clie's
2. Mp3 Players
3. Digital Cameras
4. Digital Video Cameras
5. Vaio Laptops
6. Desktop Computers
7. Electronic Picture Frames
8. AIBO Robot Dog

Sony is an electronic Giant. If McDonald's threw in a SD Card with every big Mac, that would be the leader in this pointless poll. These numbers mean nothing.

RE: The only reason it's that high is.....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 8:58:32 PM #
So? They're forcing people to use the Mem stick with their products. So? As long as people keep buying Sony, Mem Sticks will keep on shipping. And then those same people will want higher capacity ones. Makes perfect sense.

RE: The only reason it's that high is.....
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 9:01:43 AM #
The survey results do not include memory sticks (or any other memory card) sold as part of a packaged product. It only includes cards sold on their own.

This is sticks -in addition to- those shipped with product.

RE: It makes perfect sense...
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 2:33:00 PM #
...If you like buying into single-vendor-controlled technologies owned by a company that's famous for extorting markets as soon as they have control over them, (for those of you who don't remember, it was the licencing pricing that killed Betamax) and is likely to force-implement some form of draconic 'Rights management' (Like ATRAC) in their system upgrades as soon as they can do so without losing market share. (Yeah, the same company owns SONY Music - The market practically had to put a gun to their head to make them support un-marked MP3.)

If that's not your idea of a good time, you might want to consider one of the other memory options available.

10 million?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 8:25:24 PM #
"Total shipments of MemSticks are expected to reach 10 million by the end of June."


Didn't you post a story last october about shipping 10 million? Was that a lie? Or is this misguided?

See:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=1352

RE: 10 million?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2001 8:59:54 PM #
Shipments of mem stick DEVICES and mem sticks themselves are two different things. RTFA.

RE: 10 million?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 12:59:44 AM #
Wait, so there are more devices than actual memory cards? That's idiotic.

RE: 10 million?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 2:04:20 AM #
Why is that idiotic. There are now 10 million plus devices out there that can use the memory stick. 10 million potential memory stick consumers. Sounds like a profitable market to me.

RE: 10 million?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 7:11:24 AM #
It sounds idiotic since 99.99% of all devices, that use the memory stick are delivered/sold WITH a memory stick. How then can you sell 10 million devices last year and only now reach 10 million memory stick sales...?

Also, the CF market share has dropped. Logic. How many people go out and buy a new CF card on a regular basis ?



RE: 10 million?
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2001 9:03:43 AM #
Memory sticks distributed with a product are included in the tabulation. This is 10 million additional sticks, and indicates that customers are following up those memory stick devices with additional memory purchases.

Actual Data

altema @ 6/17/2001 9:36:13 PM #
Does anyone have the actual data breakdown on what this count includes? Is it every Memory Stick distributed, or just those purchased alone? And does the total represent Memory Sticks purchased for Sony Palm OS devices, or is a total of all devices using using Memory Stick, including cameras and audio devices?

Compact Media

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2001 7:08:59 PM #
Data transfer rates:
SD 10Mb/s
Memory Stick 2.45Mb/s
Compact Flash 2.2Mb/s
SpringBoard 11Mb/s
Smart Media 12Mbits/sec?

I think they are all Megabits not bytes per second. I would love to see a chart with the power consumption (3.3v), transfer rates, size, security, etc…

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