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Earlier this week, this site reported that at the CeBIT trade show in Hannover, Germany Lexar Media rolled out its family of miniSD cards worldwide. Since then SanDisk has announced the roll out of its line of miniSD cards. miniSD cards take up approximately 60% less area in a host device than standard Secure Digital cards. Both companies cards were previously available only in Japan.

miniSD, first introduced by the SD Card Association a year ago, offers flash-based storage for devices with limited internal space for removable memory, including smartphones. In fact, the small size of mobile handsets is one of the cheif reasons for the development of a removable flash memory format smaller than standard Secure Digital cards.

Three smartphones slated to include minSD card slots are Motorola's MPx220 and MPx100, as well as the Panasonic X700 smartphone. Lexar and SanDisk are also making available extenders to make miniSD compatible with full-size Secure Digital slots.

Lexar's minSD cards come in 32MB, 64MB and 128MB capacities for $30, $50, and $80 respectively. SanDisk's miniSD offerings come in 64MB, 128MB and 256MB capacities. The cost of the 64MB card is $45, while the 256MB card sells for $95. The price for the 128MB card wasn't made available. And a 32MB minSD card will only be sold in Japan.

Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard

Also at CeBIT, SanDisk introduced a Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC) for multimedia cell phones and smartphones. Approximately the same size of minSD, this solid-state card is about half the size of a postage stamp (and of a standard MultiMediaCard), measures 24 x18 x1.4 mm, and is removable. Like with miniSD, a mechanical extender, RS-MMC cards can be used in any full-sized MultiMediaCard slot as well as SD host devices that support the MultiMediaCard format.

The SanDisk Reduced Sized MultiMediaCard comes in 32, 64 and 128 megabyte capacities, and is projected to ship in the second quarter of this year. Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) pricing will range from $14.50 for the 32MB card to $40 for the 128MB card, in volume.

Memory Stick PRO Duo

In related news, SanDisk has added Memory Stick PRO Duo cards to its OEM product line, so these companies can bundle the expansion cards with their consumer electronic devices. About one third the size of a standard Memory Stick, the Memory Stick PRO Duo cards feature high-speed data transfer, MagicGate security for the secure transfer of copyright-protected content and a write speed that allows for real-time recording of high-resolution images and video.

SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo cards for OEMs range from 32MB to 128MB in size. Higher capacity cards, up to 512MB, have already been introduced

Flash Memory Market

The SD memory card passed the CompactFlash card to take the top position in market share among removable flash memory formats last fall, according to the most recent sales data available from The NPD Group. The analyst firm said SD memory captured the number one position with 30% of the U.S. flash memory market in October against 28.8% for the CompactFlash Card. In third place was Memory Stick, with a 22% market share.

Over 1,500 products, including many handhelds and smartphones currently support SD memory card. Back in July, IDC projected SD will rise to a 50.0% market share in 2005, and gain a 56.6% share in 2007.