PR releases

SD Card Association announcement of microSD card specification approval

July 13, 2005 – The SD Card Association (SDA) today announced the final approval of the microSD specification that is now available for immediate use. The microSD card, the world’s smallest removable storage card provides full compatibility and interoperability with current SD devices. The card is fully compatible with SanDisk’s TransFlash™ cards, over 5 million of which have shipped to date and is supported in 40+ handsets announced by manufacturers such as Motorola, Samsung, LG, Kyocera, and Sagem.

In the mobile phone market, a small sized memory card is needed by handset vendors to provide memory expansion with the least impact on overall size. The addition of digital audio and cameras is driving this need for more memory in mobile phones.  Conventional memory cards are however too big in dimensions for small mobile phone application. Hence, the SDA, with increasing focus on the mobile phone market has developed a new small sized SD card.

 “We welcome the adoption of microSD as the new industry standard for mobile devices,” said Yoram Cedar an SDA board member and senior vice president of engineering and emerging markets at SanDisk. “History has proven that open standards benefit both consumers and manufacturers who prefer a single, broadly supported standard.”

Paul Reinhardt, newly appointed executive director for SDA, said, “Adoption of the microSD card specification is a key part of the SDA’s strategy to address the growing needs of the mobile devices market. As the preferred memory card standard of both the consumer electronics and mobile phone markets, the SDA continues to lead the way in providing the specifications needed to further expand the capabilities of products in these markets.”

The SD Memory Card, along with the miniSD and, now, microSD cards, is the dominant memory format of choice for the wireless communications industry. The format is supported by SDA members Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic, Toshiba, NEC and other leading marketers of SD and miniSD™-enabled mobile phones around the world.

The full interoperability of the microSD with TransFlash means that the microSD card can be used immediately in the millions of handsets that currently use TransFlash cards. Existing supporters of TransFlash will migrate their products to microSD. In the meantime, TransFlash cards will operate in new microSD hosts and microSD cards will work in existing TransFlash hosts.

About the SDA

The SD Card Association (SDA) is an open industry standards organisation established in January 2000 by Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), SanDisk and Toshiba, and is supported by a consortium of over 800 companies. The SDA’s mission is to set industry standards and promote the SD Memory Card’s wide acceptance in a variety of applications. SD Memory Card standards are currently being built into a wide range of new digital products such as cellular phones, audio players, automotive multimedia systems, handheld PCs and digital video and still cameras.

By June 30, 2005, SD application products (miniSD host products included) that have been introduced into the global market have totalled 4,066 models from 288 brands. The Association’s web site can be accessed at www.sdcard.org for more information about the SDA.

Parties interested in joining the SDA are encouraged to visit the web site or contact Sarah Barbuscia, SDA membership services, at 1-925-275-6615 or sbarbuscia@sdcard.org

Another SDA Web site is www.sdcard.com, which showcases available SD products worldwide and SD interoperability between devices.