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

To: JH who wrote (15216)	9/30/2000 2:29:22 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

John, Glad to here that the CoolPix 880 is hitting store shelves. I have a $200 gift certificate at BestBuy, but haven't found anything I really like just yet. Today I went by my local store and saw that there were only two 16 MB, three 32 MB, one 64 MB and one 126 MB SanDisk card for sale. There was also only one 32 MB and one 48 MB Simple Technology cards for sale. The store is flush with SmartMedia of 8, 16 and 32 MB capacity and there was also quite a few 32 MB Memory Sticks. In looking at the camera selection I am still attracted to the Canon and Nikon offerings, but Olympus and Sony are also quite appealing. The Olympus D4xx and C3030 are very stylish and the latest Sony Cybershots are nice, but a bit pricey megapixel for megapixel. I doubt that all the CompactFlash manufacturers combined could have produced enough cards if Olympus and Sony had decided not to promote alternate standards and jump on the CompactFlash bandwagon. Still, Toshiba will continue to sell 64 MB and now 128 MB SmartMedia and Olympus really has no reason to switch standards at this point. I wish I had a better understanding of how SanDisk makes out on SmartMedia sales. With FlashVision on the blackboard for the second half of 2001 I am still suspicious that SanDisk decide to pass on manufacturing their own SmartMedia and will private label Toshiba's cards. Eli stated at the annual meeting that Toshiba and SanDisk will not compete in their respective markets. Thus, that segment of the digital film market seems to be conceded to Toshiba. I hope that Sony either decides to purchase flash from FlashVision or recruits FlashVision as a MemoryStick assembler. I am less worried about the MP3 and handset markets. Clearly MMC will be tough to compete with in these areas. Also, with Palm deciding on MMC/SDMC SanDisk will have its hands full making enough MMC to keep the OEM's happy. Aus

To: JH who wrote (15216)	9/30/2000 10:15:36 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Getting the word out. From digitalkamera.de Patent dispute about Flash memory technology 2000-09-28 The market for Flash memory storage chips apparently is so lucrative that the two most well-known rivals in this field, i. e. Lexar Media and SanDisk, are now even having their competition out in court. The two Californian manufacturers accuse each other of having infringed the other's patents. Lexar Media struck their latest blow up to now on 7th September, when they accused SanDisk of infringing a patent (U.S. Patent No 5,479,638) originally assigned to Cirrus Logic but later acquired by Lexar. SanDisk are trying to get themselves out of it, argueing e. g. that the SmartMedia memory cards and accessories mainly in question had been bought up from third-party manufacturers. In another lawsuit coming to court on 23rd October, SanDisk are sueing Lexar Media for allegedly having infringed a patent right. Should SanDisk win this lawsuit, Lexar Media would immediately have to stop marketing and producion of all products offending against the respective SanDisk patent (U.S. Patent No 5,602,987). (yb) Aus