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

To: Rocky Reid who wrote (11248)	5/20/2000 9:02:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

MultiMedia Card and Secure MMC These are some examples of the cards in question... omniplayer.com hitachi.co.jp Rocky, Just about two years ago I called Cindy Burgdorf and asked her specifically about MMC. I was told that the co-development process between SanDisk and Infineon (then Siemens' semiconductor group) allowed for licensing rights as follows. SanDisk would retain the right to license the write/read/rewrite flash RAM version of the card. Siemens would retain the right to license the ROM version of the card for such applications as preloaded music, maps, dictionaries,... This is important as I learned yesterday that the Omniplayer (that you linked) is bundled with either a SanDisk 16 or 32 MB MMC or a Siemens/Infineon-branded MMC. This suggests that SanDisk may recieve royalty payments from Infineon for these cards. [Note: The MMC cards that came with my Pontis MP3 Player I purchased in December of 1998 has Siemens logo on the front, but "SanDisk '97" on the back of the card.] Today two more variations are out there: Secure Digital Memory Card (SanDisk, Toshiba, Matsushita) and Secure MultiMedia Card (Hitachi/Infineon). I believe "SDMC" and "Secure MMC" will be cross-compatible. I will look at the MultiMedia Card Association website to confirm this. As you know, Rocky, "unsecured" formats such as MP3 that allow users to rip their own CD's and enjoy their own music is an "unsecure" format. I personally believe that the average consumer will be slow to accept the tangled web of inconvenience that is demanded by the secure formats. For the time being, device manufacturers who sell MP3 players will likely continue to offer either dedicated MP3-capable players or MP3-capable players with a toggle that allows the security features to be switched on & off. The price points are falling as we speak. This week I purchased an I-Jam player for a friend on AOL for $99.99 plus shipping. It comes with a 32 MB SanDisk MMC and employs no security features. At this price point the "market elasticity" that Dr. Harari has mentioned comes into play. Price sensitivity and triggering of a mass market interest at some magical price point will undoubtedly occur. MP3/MMC is a price sensitive/volume driven market as the end-users have limited discretionary income... Message 13030895 Ausdauer