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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Mercer-Hursh who wrote (27178)	7/2/2000 7:56:06 AM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 54805

Thomas, as a digital camera owner for the last 2 years and an MP3 player owner the last 1 1/2 years I would say... ...that a 1 gigabyte microdrive is overkill. Most digital camera owners purchase between 16 and 64 MB of flash storage for their camera. SmartMedia, one of the most popular flash storage solutions for digital photography, is not even available in capacities beyond 64 MB. A nice 2.1 megapixel resolution digital camera takes files in the range of 500KB allowing well over 100 images on a 64 MB card. That is the equivalent of more than 4 rolls of 24 exposure film. The ability to delete images on the fly extends the useful life of a 64 MB card to probably 8 or 10 rolls of 24 exposure film. Because the flash card is inexhaustible the cost savings over the life of the card is significant. A 340 MB microdrive costs more than a decent, entry-level digital camera. (And when was the last time you need 30 or 40 rolls of film for a single weekend excursion or summer vacation?) I will admit that the MP3 market will be problematic for flash memory until capacities rise and cost per MB falls. Having said that, rotating disk drives have inherent problems in mobile music devices because of the shaking and other pertubations imposed by their use. Flash memory is a superior solution. Power consumption is also a problem for the portable drive makers. The Diamond Rio!, the prototypic MP3/Internet audio player, was successful because it used flash memory. The number of Rio! copycats that have followed indicate that OEM's are interested in pursuing flash memory. Were it not for temporary cost issues flash memory cards would be unchallenged in the MP3 market. There is simply no technology that offers all the desirable attributes that flash memory offers. Ausdauer