SanDisk's New Translucent Look Memory Stick Pro Duo Cards Targeted At Sony's New PlayStation Portable (PSP) Console

Disk Corporation announced today that it is entering the portable video game accessory market and introduced a line of flash memory cards targeted at the $25 billion dollar video game market. The announcement was made at a SanDisk press conference at the annual Consumer Electronics Show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Booth 31438.

SanDisk?s entry into the video game market comes as companies that manufacture portable video game consoles develop devices that include slots for standard flash memory cards. The company has adopted unique game packaging and redesigned the ?look and feel? of the cards to spur sales among younger consumers.

Christina Day, SanDisk product marketing manager, said, ?The new generation portable game consoles now incorporate digital audio players, video players and photo viewers. Our flash memory cards are a natural fit with these products as game users need incremental storage for their music, video and photos. Consumers also can use the cards to store their game content such as trailers and demos, game levels and to download and store any data from the included WiFi connectivity of the PlayStation Portable PSP?.?

She explained, ?the addition of these features to the new generation of portable game consoles is driving the demand for high capacity, expandable flash memory cards. We think the sweet spot initially for card capacity will be around 128 to 256 megabytes (MB) as that typically will be needed to store game levels, music and other non-gaming features of the machines. As the world?s largest supplier of flash memory cards, SanDisk is well positioned to accelerate the growth of this market.?

SanDisk initially is offering the new game cards in Memory Stick PRO Duo? and SD?, one of the most popular card formats. Sony?s first handheld game device, the PlayStation Portable, has just been introduced in Japan and uses Memory Stick PRO Duo cards. International Data Corp., a leading market research firm, estimates that 8.8 million PSPs will be sold in 2005. Other popular portable game machines, such as the Tapwave Zodiac and the Gizmondo, have slots for SD cards.

The Memory Stick PRO Duo cards in game packaging will be sold in capacities ranging from 128MB to 1 gigabyte (GB) with suggested retail prices from $39.99 to $159.99. SD cards for the game market will be sold in several capacities from 128MB to 1GB with suggested retail pricing of $34.99 to $104.99. The cards will start shipping to stores this month.

SanDisk?s new game cards will be sold in many of the 93,000 retail outlets worldwide where SanDisk-branded products are sold. The company also intends to sell the cards through new retail channels for SanDisk products including game and toy stores and video outlets.

SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world?s largest supplier of flash data storage card products using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.