Millions of consumers now carry products that use removable memory cards. They are a staple in palmtop computers, digital cameras, MP3 players, mobile phones and similar devices. But pick a dozen examples at random and you could well find they use six incompatible types of card, and that's not counting multiple versions - such as different types of Memory Stick and CompactFlash - or obscure formats such as Iomega's PocketZip.
The world may need more than one type of removable storage, but it doesn't need 10. Grab a selection of handheld computers and the storage options include PC Cards (formerly known as PCMCIA cards), CompactFlash Type 1 and Type II, Secure Digital (SD), Sony Memory Sticks and cards for the Springboard slot only used in Handspring's Palm-compatibles.
Collect the same number of cameras and, as well as those already mentioned, you can add the SmartMedia and MultiMedia Memory Card formats plus xD (Extreme Digital) Picture cards. MP3 players, mobile phones, pagers, photo printers and microwave ovens tend to use the same cards. If they have their own variants, I'd rather not know about them. It was the xD Picture card, launched last summer by Olympus and Fujifilm, that pushed me over the edge.
Like many users, I'd resorted to buying a six-in-one multi-format card reader, which plugs into a personal computer's USB port. Result: happiness, at least for a few weeks. But some of the next tranche of cameras came with xD cards that didn't fit any of the slots. Brian O'Rourke, a senior analyst with the In-Stat/MDR market research company in the USA, says: "The proliferation of memory cards is extremely confusing to the typical consumer, who just wants a card that will work with his PDA and cellphone.
It would be a benefit to all consumers if there were consolidation in this market." That is, alas, unlikely to happen. It takes old formats a long time to die out, and manufacturers have lots of reasons to invent new ones. These could include not paying licensing fees and trying to avoid competition. However, consumers could shape the future by voting for the more useful formats with their wallets and purses, if only we knew what they were.
CompactFlash (CF) cards were launched by SanDisk in 1994, and are not very compact: they got their name from being much smaller than PC cards used in notebook PCs. CF cards tend to hold more memory, and tend to be cheap. Sizes commonly range from 32MB (£15) to 1GB (£450). You can also buy tiny hard disks - IBM Microdrives - modems, Ethernet network and Wi-Fi wireless cards, GPS satellite and Bluetooth cards in this format. Capacity, versatility and price suggest CompactFlash cards are going to be around for a while, though there's a strong trend towards smaller cards.
SmartMedia Cards (SMC) are the thinnest of the thin, at 45.0mm x 37.0mm x 0.76mm. Developed by Toshiba, the cards were used in most early digital cameras and still have 40% of the market. They are fast, and nowadays come in three main sizes: 32MB (£14), 64MB (£22) and 128MB (£40). They are cheap partly because they are dumb: they have no controller, so that has to be built into the device. They are also plastic and easy to destroy, if you bend them too far. Finally, the current maximum capacity of 128MB makes them less attractive for some uses. All this suggests a format on the way out, albeit slowly.
MultiMedia Cards (MMC) are very small and robust, and have been used in handheld computers, MP3 players and mobile phones. Sizes typically range from 32MB (£18) to 64MB (£49). The MMC format is rapidly being upstaged by the SD card, another SanDisk design that uses a thicker version of the same slot. However, in November, the MultiMediaCard Association approved a new standard for Reduced Size MultiMediaCards (RS-MMC), which, at 24mm x 18mm x 1.4mm, are almost half the size. These are aimed at the mobile phone market, but will also be a threat to xD cards. MMC is promoted as an open standard and the cards should survive. You can use your old MMC cards in your new SD device, but not vice versa, and RS-MMC cards will fit MMC and SD slots via a mechanical expander.
Secure Digital (SD) cards look like MultiMedia cards but they are slightly thicker. They hold more memory - from 32MB (£18) to 512MB (£290) - and eventually they should hold at least 8GB. Users can write-protect their SD cards and, as the name implies, they also offer a feature that is very attractive to the entertainment businesses: copyright protection via encryption. SD cards are becoming increasingly popular in digital cameras, camcorders, MP3 players and PDAs, and there's even an SD slot in one microwave oven. They are also going beyond memory, to replace CompactFlash cards. Palm is now pushing the SDIO (Secure Digital Input/Output) format and produced the first SDIO product, a Bluetooth card. With SD slots now common in both Palm and PocketPC handhelds, and with the backing of more than 500 companies, SD looks the best bet for the future.
Memory Stick is Sony's proprietary format and comes in two versions. The white one, MagicGate, has copyright protection. The Memory Stick is not particularly small, is not competitive in capacity, and is not cheap. Sizes range from 32MB (£23) to 128MB (£56), though another version with more storage is on the way. It is hard to see a reason for the Memory Stick's continued existence. However, Sony has propagated it by using it in a wide variety of Sony products, and there are enough Sony groupies around to ensure its survival.
xD is the newest format and looks like SD, only smaller and, at 2g, lighter. In fact, at 20mm x 25mm x 1.7mm, they are the smallest memory cards on the market. At first glance they may seem pointless, but stifle that scream. They are fast, use very little power, already offer capacities from 32MB (£17) to 128MB (£42), and could become very cheap. (Like the SmartMedia cards they are designed to replace, they don't have their own controller.) So far, only two companies are using xD Picture Cards - Fujifilm and Olympus - with Toshiba as the manufacturer. They have enough market share to establish xD in the digital camera market, and the format's capacity to handle up to 8GB should ensure they last for a while. Whether they can break out of that niche remains to be seen. However, they could be used for new electronic devices that are so small you will wear them pinned to your clothes, like jewellery.
· For consistency, all prices have been quoted from the Flash Card Store website and include VAT.
www.flash-card-store.co.uk/store_cards.htm
