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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation
WDC 163.00-0.4%Nov 7 9:30 AM EST

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To: EJhonsa who wrote (14811)9/16/2000 10:36:15 PM
From: Ausdauer  Read Replies (1) of 60323
 
Eric,

I never invested in SanDisk with the expectation they would sell a single flash memory card to the mobile phone market. I now realize how large the demand for MMC could be. I think it is safe to say that SanDisk is excited about the prospects of MMC in cellphones. Dr. Harari had an MP3-enabled cellphone at the SanDisk Annual Shareholders' Meeting in May and he was really pumped about it. He had recently been to a gala that SanDisk apparently co-sponsored and let Yo Yo Ma listen to some classical recordings on the phone. Eli said that he was very impressed with the sound quality. At the meeting he even pulled out the phone and then nimbly removed the MMC while talking and doing a PowerPoint presentation at the same time! He even had a pointer in one of his hands!!!

albums.photopoint.com

Initially all of the major handset manufacturers will probably be clammoring for MMC to enhance their offerings. Thus, I would expect an abrupt upsurge in MMC demand once Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens, Audiovox, Bosch,... all come out with their competing MP3 capable devices.

My understanding is that the flash RAM version of MMC is part of SanDisk's IP, while the ROM version (pre-loaded phone books, GPS maps, dictionaries...) is Siemens baby. I have two Siemens MMC cards and on the back there is a SanDisk copyright insignia.

albums.photopoint.com

[this photo cannot be republished without the written permission of Ausdauer]

It seems that Secure MMC and Secure Digital Memory Card will be competing standards. I believe Secure MMC is being co-promoted by Siemens and Hitachi(?). But I think plain vanilla MMC will be a big seller. Pre-recorded cards don't clearly have a role just yet. Also, card security standards are just getting worked out and the content for distribution just doesn't seem ready for prime time just yet. The ongoing Napster litigation underscores this point.

Ausdauer
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