The first 8 GB removable memory cards for mobile phones will hit the market later this month from SanDisk Corp. The flash storage card maker is also negotiating with major content providers to preload their offerings, such as maps, on these cards.
A single, high-density card can store more than 2,000 digital songs or five hours of MPEG-4 videos, or more than 5,000 high-resolution pictures. On the business-user front, an 8 GB card can enable faster rendering of PowerPoint slides, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and business applications such as customer relationship management tools. To date, mobile phones serving up business software have been hobbled by a lack of storage capacity, leading to slow access and a painful user experience.
However, Joe Unsworth, principal analyst at market researcher Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., said he’s skeptical about the impact the card will have on businesses. “We don’t see that many removable cards being used and paid for by enterprises,” he said. “Enterprise applications [require] an awful lot. If you really needed that much, you probably have a notebook or wireless PDA.”
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