Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rocky Reid who wrote (9246)	2/20/2000 5:39:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Rocky, The mega-markets for flash memory are digital photography, Internet audio and cellular phones. It's a given that the gaming crowd overlaps with the mp3 market. I still see Sony as having a tough road ahead unless others decide to license the Memory Stick design in other platforms. Also, the Digital Walkman is selling for $400.00 at retail. I hardly see that as competitively priced. In the digital camera marketplace the Cybershot 2.1 megapixel camera sells for around $600.00 with no zoom lens. They are going to have to do better than that, I'm afraid. The bottom line is: 1) How big of a bite the chewing gum-like Memory Stick will take out of CF and MMC/SDMC sales? and 2)Who will be manufacturing the chips wrapped in the purple plastic??? Ausdauer

To: Rocky Reid who wrote (9246)	2/20/2000 6:20:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Rocky and Thread, I think our commentary was right on when we discussed microdrive over the past 2 years. Evidence lately has been mounting that power consumption is a real problem. I posted a bench top comparison a few months back, but cannot find the link now. Other related items have included: messages.yahoo.com messages.yahoo.com This weekend I read the following in Digital Camera magazine (Aeon Publishing Group): Canon PowerShot S-10 Another noteworthy feature of this camera is that it supports CompactFlash Type II cards, which are slightly thicker and potentially far more capacious. The IBM MicroDrive, an amazing 340MB miniature hard disk, fits right into this device and offers you the oppportunity to store several hundred images at full resolution! The S-10/Microdrive combo is unbeatable when you take into account the size of the thing. The only downside is that the MicroDrive draws more power than a solid state flash card does, so your batteries will last from 50-75% as long as they would th an ordinary CF Card. I used a 160MB SanDisk CF II card and found it was a very good mate to the S-10. Plenty of performance and low battery drain made it a pleasure to use, and they tell me that a 340MB version is coming soon. Ausdauer

To: Rocky Reid who wrote (9246)	2/21/2000 4:10:00 AM
From: Derek C.	Respond to of 60323

Rocky, I believe Sony PS2 is using a proprietary Flash memory. Magicgate is a security and encryption system and doesn't have to be used with Memorystick. Magicgate and Memorystick are two separate items. playstation.com Have you seen any announcements about use of Memorystick in PS2? Derek

To: Rocky Reid who wrote (9246)	2/21/2000 10:28:00 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Rocky & Thread: Good Lord! So the stick of chewing gum becomes as inocuous as . . . a stick of chewing gum! As you note, however, there may be room enough for several formats when it comes to digital photography and music players. One way to look at the Sony avalanche is in terms of marketing, and whether sheer marketing muscle is all it takes to make a product successful. Sony twice tried this approach, with the betamax and later, with its 8mm video. The betamax lost out to VHS on the basis of one performance measurement -- the ability of VHS to record more video material on a single tape. The 8mm video cassette, while somewhat successful, has not been able to overcome the convenience of being able to play a compact VHS camcorder tape in a VHS machine, albeit with an adaptor. The competition for market penetration in both digital cameras and music players, including the ability to download an entire movie to a flash memory, in my view will come down to the same betamax issue -- storage capacity. Eli Harari made some comments last fall about the differences in potential capacity between the MemoryStick and CF or MMC. He noted, I recall, that the shape of the MemoryStick would create an inherent problem to obtaining large storage capacity. I'm not well versed in engineering problems, but when one compares an oblong with a nearly square shape, the square format has many advantages. As for compatibility between flash memory for the Play Station and other devices, I don't see the need, but maybe it's just because I've never had any interest in the types of games for which the Play Station and similar devices were designed. Ultimately performance at a given cost should carry the day. SNDK will have high capacity memory coming out of its Virginia plant long before Sony begins selling chips with half the memory. Sony will also have to contend with an array of competitors, including Mitsubishi, Toshiba, as well as dozens of camera companies such as Olympus, Nikon, and Canon, all of whom have signed on to a standard to which SNDK subscribes, and which is available without cost to all who want to use it. In that respect, the competition is not similar to MSDOS v. Macintosh, except in reverse. Apple made a fatal error by not opening its format to the industry, thus paving the way for Microsoft based computers to become the de facto standard. Even though Apple was first with a windows format, their failure to open the system to competitors assured that PC based equipment would prevail except in selected applications. The fact that the Macintosh system still exists and is doing quite well against a much larger competitor must be related to one and only one characteristic -- performance at reasonable cost. Art