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

To: limtex who wrote (3126)	5/26/1998 7:35:00 PM
From: JJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Kodak introduces new megapixel cameras. kodak.com Note their use of "Picture Card" is Compact Flash. They do the same thing in APS (Advance Photo System) film calling it Advantix. A good resource for digital cameras including picture quality. imaging-resource.com Larger pixel count equal larger file size. There may be price compression on a per meg basis but memory requirements are rising at least as fast as D cameras start equaling film in many applications. Anyone know if SNDK is OEM supplier for Kodak? jjb

To: limtex who wrote (3126)	5/26/1998 10:28:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Regarding SmartMedia... Toshiba pays royalties/licensing fees to SNDK, that is clear. The terms of the agreement are confidential, but probably included a lump sum payment, followed by ongoing payments proportional to the amount of product sold or produced. I am just guessing. There could be other scenarios as well, including annual lump sums, annual lump sum plus production/sales based fees,... One interesting arrangement would be a lump sum for each new camera design released which uses SmartMedia. That would serve as a disincentive to continue to pursue SmartMedia in favor of other media such as CompactFlash. It seems like Olympus and Fuji will continue to utilize SmartMedia, and their combined product line is impressive. Either way, SanDisk has their fingers in the till and that is the beauty of the whole thing. Various websites have reviewed the Olympus digital cameras and the sample photos I have downloaded are breathtaking. The latest Fuji 1.5 megapixel camera is designed very nicely and those who have used it are impressed. However, a 2 or 4 MB SmartMedia card is practically useless and many upgrade immediately to 8 MB. I hope that Sony uses a floppy disk caddy for SmartMedia in the next rendition of the Mavica. I really don't like the look and feel of SmartMedia ("the black potato chip") and I hope that CompactFlash will become the storage media of choice.