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To: Allegoria who wrote (12443)	7/2/2000 1:18:15 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Eric, thanks for the great details comparing SSTI and SNDK. I don't see the Microdrive as even being competitive with compact flash. The two products aim at different markets. Can you imagine anything more ridiculous than a Canon digital Elf with a Microdrive and an extra battery pack as large as the camera? A large capacity Microdrive could certainly attract those who wish to combine the camera and video functions, but that is a different market from digital still cameras. Clearly small size, long battery life, and high resolution are design objectives in the latest cameras coming on the market. A small camera with a Microdrive would be inconsistent, to say the least. On the question of whether SSTI and SNDK could end up competing for similar markets, I can certainly see that possibility. But doesn't the market for SSTI consist more of embedded flash applications? Seems to me that removable flash cards, whether CF, MMC, MemoryStick, or Smartmedia, aim at a slightly different market. Can they overlap? Probably, but at the moment I don't see any overlap. Art

To: Allegoria who wrote (12443)	7/3/2000 12:38:12 AM
From: Gary Kao	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Eric: thanks for your detailed note...however one giant flaw in your and SSTI's line of reasoning is that should demand for flash be met or dry up, the giants such as Intel and AMD will no longer be willing to forgo the lower end flash market. Indeed, dropping prices on their higher end products will inevitably kill off the lower end...I seriously doubt that SSTI can produce flash far cheaper than Intel, in terms of dollars per meg. In such bear markets, SSTI could wither away virtually "in a flash" (sic! could not resist!). Gary

To: Allegoria who wrote (12443)	7/4/2000 2:01:48 PM
From: Dan Spillane	Respond to of 60323

Tiny disk drives such as those from IBM do not provide the instant application on/off behavior increasingly being called for in handheld PCs, cell phones, and now even desktop PCs. Though maybe digital cameras don't need instant on/off. High density semiconductor (flash) provides several things that disk drives cannot. For sure, mechanical drives cannot sustain the physical shock of being dropped. People do drop handheld PCs, cell phones, and cameras. And what about power requirements for drives? Memory demand is growing up to eightfold in cell phones, and probably more than that in handhelds (up to that of a desktop PC). I'm just pointing out that the big growth is in high-density markets. When this growth happens, wouldn't the cost-per-byte equalize between low- and high- density? I can't see the price of low-density flash holding up, nor the demand growing. The growth for high-density is huge, growing with specific needs for flash in some devices, as well as applications of disks in others. Where are the new applications for low-density? It seems that a company like ATML offers a better play than the smaller flash players...and it is diversified as well. Check out the messages in the ATML folder. Don't miss the latest news on the huge growth in the China cell phone market I posted there! Incredible. Dan