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

To: OrionX who wrote (4997)	3/9/1999 12:10:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Orion, Don't give up on us now. You sound like you sold your position today and are now short SNDK!? I think entry price will be a big factor. CompactFlash is becoming more and more affordable. And there will be a big lag time before people start plugging IBM Microdrives into their digital cameras, especially because there are no design-ins for this device currently. Ausdauer ($37 1/4)

To: OrionX who wrote (4997)	3/9/1999 1:19:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Orion, Your statement seems quite disparaging... CF as I have been seeing recently is just a passing technology except for where extremely small size components is a requirement. Ausdauer

To: OrionX who wrote (4997)	3/9/1999 1:49:00 PM
From: Tumbleweed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

OrionX, re your comments but storage density, recordability, ease of use and cost per MB are key factors in storage technologies. CF in mass market products may not be the best at meeting these criteria You mised two other key factors; Battery consumption Robustness With today's digicams, having an optical finder in addition to LCD is IMHO essential because power consumption is bad enough if its LCD viewfinder only. With a spinning disc drive as well? You'd better carry a long lead and be connected to the mains. Robustness is IMHO less of an issue than some on this thread think (after all, video cams are packed full of them and it doesnt seem to have delayed their takeup) but even so, if I have a flaky clik disc with pictures on it, or ?500 to 1000? pictures on an IBM minidisk all of which which I lose because I jarred it at an inopportune moment, I am going to think twice about buying the same product again. Finally, there are plenty of applications where an exchangeable or extra 50MB or less is fine (for example, PDA) and IBM minidisk is overkill. Add that and the lower cost and CF has plenty of places where it will remain undisputed leader for a long time to come. Joe

To: OrionX who wrote (4997)	3/9/1999 6:20:00 PM
From: limtex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

OrionX - How much does it cost to manufacture a Rio type device ( without the cost of its memory device)? How much does it cost to manufacture a minidisk type device? Regards, L

To: OrionX who wrote (4997)	3/10/1999 2:17:00 AM
From: Derek C.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

OrionX, I have a different view with respect to the portable audio players. As you know each MP3 song requires approximately 3MB of capacity. A 32MB (or 64MB Flash device is sufficient to hold the whole album(10+ songs). Although IBM drive or Re-writeable CDs( or optical devices) have potential higher capacities, the advantage of Flash dictates its use. A Flash device requires a single AA battery for operation. The most important advantage besides its smaller physical size is that it is NOT mechanical. You can ask any system designer and will tell you the headaches and reliability issues that are associated with it. Of Course all of the above arguments relate to "portable" audio devices or Walk-man replacement gadgets. I do agree that Re-writeable CD is a viable solution for Home Entertainment systems. SanDisk will be challenged not by MECHANICAL devices but by other Flash manufacturers(Toshiba, Sony). This is the battle that they need to win. Cheers, Derek