Aus, looking at the potential for a PDA loaded with the Palm OS, I sense that this platform is suitable for a variety of "away from home/office" computing activities. It seems to me that someone who wanted to do serious email, letter and report writing could keep a word processor program together with key files on an MMC or SD card. Perhaps the user would carry around a half dozen or so cards containing one or more programs and related files. Provided that one could hook up a keyboard to the PDA, one would have a very powerful computer in a very convenient package that would replace many of the laptops currently in use. The more versatile laptops, meanwhile, owing to their continually improved flat panel displays, would eventually displace some of the more bulky, higher power consumption desktops, especially now that we are undergoing electricity shortages.
Removable flash memory cards remain the storage medium of choice because of the ease of data transfer between various devices using flash cards, the ruggedness of the storage medium, and the cost, which is now low enough to compete with bulkier products.
All these innovations will take some time to become established in the marketplace. Thus, we shouldn't expect to see huge increases in demand for flash memory, unless there are some completely new applications, such as personal health information. And unless SNDK can show that it has product designs capable of generating royalties, then unfortunately we can't expect the stock to jump very much in the near term. The strength shown today for SNDK and other tech and semi stocks reminds me of the classic bear market rally. Nothin more than that.
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