Some thoughts from somebody who went to CTIA on the removable memory card trend in cell phones....
phonescoop.com
Stealth Trends
Two new phone trends that not many people are talking about, but seem major to me, are MP3 playback and removable memory cards. Of course, the two are linked, since memory cards are the only practical way to store more than a handful of MP3s in a phone.
Memory cards are popping up in phones everywhere. At first, it was just smartphones, with Series 60 phones sporting MMC slots, and Windows Mobile Smartphones sporting SD slots. But now, memory cards are quickly getting smaller and creeping into the "feature phone" category.
The Motorola E398, V710, and A840 all have slots for the new TransFlash card format. (TransFlash had a bit an identity crisis recently, being called T-Flash last month, and TriFlash-R the month before. Hopefully this name will stick.) The big deal about TransFlash is the size (no pun intended) - it's really tiny - about half the size of a SIM card.
Other new feature phones coming soon with removable cards include the Nokia 6255i (MMC format) and the Sony Ericsson S700 (Memory Stick Duo). MiniSD and RS-MMC are other formats with serious traction, making for quite a mess in the war of the card formats.
Speaking of the Nokia 6255i, while it has a full-size MMC card slot, it will probably be the last such phone from Nokia. The company recently started a transition to the smaller RS-MMC format with the 7610, and they told us they're committed to that format going forward.
Like I mentioned earlier, the rise of memory cards is closely linked to the rise of MP3 player features. The wild success of Apple's iPod has re-ignited the whole concept of music-on-the-go, forcing phone makers to re-examine the whole MP3 thing, after basically abandoning it about 3 years ago. (Who else remembers the Samsung Uproar and the Siemens SL45?)
There are other uses for memory cards, though, such as transferring megapixel photos and long video clips. And once you add a card slot for those functions, adding MP3 playback is a no-brainer, since it's mostly just a software feature.
So the upshot is: MP3 playback and memory cards have a very symbiotic relationship when it comes to phones. The combination is compelling, and it dovetails nicely with other trends in the industry. Expect to see more of these features throughout the year. |
