I don't remember seeing this news item posted on the thread and I thought it might be of some interest.
SanDisk making strides in flash-storage market
Abstracted from Electronic Buyers News 07/06/98
SanDisk Corp (Sunnyvale, CA) was the 6th-largest vendor of flash memory last year, based nearly exclusively on sales of its CompactFlash (CF) and Type II and III PC Card storage media, according to IC Insights (Scottsdale, AZ). Within the last 6 mos, SanDisk has entered the retail channel in Europe, North America, and Japan, and launched into the Australian OEM market through its network of distributors. SanDisk's net income grew 37% last year to $19.8 mil, on a revenue increase of nearly 40% to $125.3 mil. In spring-1998, SanDisk introduced a high-density 128-Mbit flash chipset, and more recently launched a line of chips, CD devices and PC cards, and flash drives based on an 80-Mbit, double-density flash-memory technology. The company claimed 44% of the $212 mil global flash-storage-card market in 1997, vs Intel's 10% share and Toshiba's 5%, according to Peripheral Research Corp (Santa Barbara, CA). SanDisk has recently convinced MiniatureCard users Hewlett-Packard Co and Konica Corp to
adopt the ATA-hardware-controller-based CF cards over Intel's software-driven devices for future digital-camera designs. SanDisk is also venturing into the desktop-PC sector. The company has introduced an ImageMate card reader that connects to the desktop through the printer's parallel port to download stored images at speeds up to 20X those of serial connections. Article includes tables on flash storage card market share and global small-format flash card sales.
Jim |
