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Flash-Memory Bargains Bloom

Portable flash memory capacities are increasing--and decreasing in price.

Laurianne McLaughlin

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Want extra flash memory for your MP3 player, digital camera or PDA? You're in luck. Prices are dropping fast, thanks to heated competition between makers. And high-capacity products--holding up to 4GB--will soon debut.

How much can you save? At the beginning of 2002, 256MB Secure Digital cards sold for roughly $200; forthcoming 512MB and 1GB SD cards (expected by this fall) will carry suggested retail prices of $170 and $330, says Gartner analyst Joe Unsworth (see chart at left).

These new capacities are pushing down prices of smaller cards. Right now, 128MB and 256MB cards are particularly good bargains, says Mike Kuppinger, digital media product manager for Kingston Technology. Such SD cards cost $55 and $75, while same-size CompactFlash cards go for $10 less.

If you require even more room, SanDisk this summer plans to ship 2GB and 4GB CF cards at prices of $499 and $999, respectively. That's expensive, but a year ago, 1GB CF cards sold for $800 and up.

MiniSDs--cards about two-thirds the size of regular SD cards--have also arrived, in capacities up to 64MB, with 256MB on the way. Designed for cell phones, MiniSDs may move into PDAs; adapters let them fit into SD slots. A 32MB SanDisk version with adapter costs $29. Also on the tiny side is the XD-Picture Card from Fujifilm and Olympus, used in cameras, and now up to 256MB ($190); add $60 for an adapter to fit CF slots.

SD and CF dominate the flash-memory market, with a share of over 50 percent between them in 2002, according to Gartner Research. Most of the other formats should last, but Kuppinger says Smart Media may be on its way out.

Bottom Line: Stick with one flash format as you choose new devices; otherwise, it gets expensive, says Alan Niebel, CEO of Web-Feet Research.

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