Khan,
The SmartMedia is cheaper because the controller resides in the device. I am certain that MMC will give SmartMedia a run for the money with regard to cost. The mp3 player market will evolve much more rapidly than the digital camera market. The barrier to entry is much less without the need for bells and whistles like optics, autofocus and flash (as in flash cube). The site I posted a while back indicates that many forms of storage, including entire zip drives, have been included in the design. (The Mavica approach to mp3.)
In the end the issues will be the same. Size, portability, ruggedness (skip-proof) and energy efficiency. I hope that manufacturers will elect to go with bare bones in the way of removable storage and focus on value added features such as a backlit LCD display, soft touch controls, high quality ear phones, easy programmability and free software packages. Then memory/storage will be more of an aftermarket issue.
Recall that Siemens is the business partner with SNDK for MMC and I believe they will push the product line hard, especially in Europe. Also, I believe CF is still a reasonable alternative, especially if MMC is limited in storage capacity like SmartMedia.
Each manufacturer will bet on one storage medium or the other. I think that solid state memory in one form or another will win. The last thing I want anthropologists to find several millenia hence is a mountainous pile of used AA batteries.
All IMHO,
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