Being concerned about Smartmedia as a competitive product, I was very excited when I read in one of articles posted that that Toshiba had no plans to increase MB capacity beyond 16MB -
In November, SanDisk produced CompactFlash Type
I cards that hold up to 96 megabytes of data and larger
Type II cards of up to 160 megabytes, double the
density of previous products. The thicker Type II cards
are used in handheld devices and can be bundled with
miniature hard drives or fax/modems. SanDisk will
double the capacity of CompactFlash cards again in
1999 and every year thereafter, according to Travis
Linton, product marketing engineer at SanDisk. Toshiba
said it doesn't have immediate plans to expand the
current maximum capacity of 16 megabytes on
SmartMedia cards.
Linton said the price per megabyte of CompactFlash
will be cut in half in 1999. The IDC report projects the
cost per megabyte will drop to just 42 cents for
CompactFlash, and 26 cents per megabyte for
SmartMedia in 2002.
With more cost parity between the two devices, Kane
said, CompactFlash will become even more popular.
Fifty-four digital cameras, and 100 products overall,
now support CompactFlash.
Then I read that they are increasing capacity. Has anyone heard anything more specific on this?
CompactFlash, a flash memory format from SanDisk, comes in capacities that
range from 8MB to 64MB. A 64MB card can store up to 70 images at VGA
resolution, which is fine for e-mail or Web publishing. The higher-resolution
images that yield photo-quality printouts may require 3MB or 4MB each.
SmartMedia, developed by Toshiba, is available in 4MB to 16MB capacities,
with larger sizes on the way.
I'm counting on Compactfash MB capacity to leave Smartmedia in the dust. That will really help them win the race between the two technologies. |
