SanDisk Ships Its Two Billionth microSD™ Card as Technology Marks 10-Year Anniversary
July 13 2015 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
microSD format instrumental in expanding market
for smartphones, extreme photography and other devices
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a global leader in flash
storage solutions, today announced it has shipped more than two
billion microSD™ cards since it started commercial shipment of the
technology ten years ago. The company commemorates this milestone
on the eve of Mobile World Congress Shanghai.
Invented by SanDisk in 2004, the microSD format was initially
known as TransFlash™. In 2005 SanDisk contributed the technology to
the SD Card Association who renamed and released the final
specifications for the microSD format on July 13, 2005. This format
has become the most popular removable memory card in SanDisk’s
history. Collectively, SanDisk’s two billion microSD cards could
store an estimated 11,103 billion megabytes (MB)* worth of memory –
the equivalent of more than 100MB of flash storage for every man,
woman and child that ever lived on Earth.
The microSD card —which reduced the size of removable memory
cards by approximately 75 percent —has played a pivotal role in a
wide variety of consumer markets. For example, the vast majority of
“point of view” or action cameras — the fastest-growing segment in
digital imaging — are based around the microSD format.
The microSD format has also helped propel the smartphone market
by giving both manufacturers and consumers greater flexibility and
freedom. Approximately 75 percent of smartphone models on the
market today contain microSD slots, according to data from Strategy
Analytics1. Google included microSD slots in two of its
fastest-growing and largest mobile product segments — Android One,
its mobile operating system for sub-$200 phones, and phones
designed for emerging markets. Android M, Google’s next mobile
operating system, and Windows Mobile both permit consumers to run
applications directly on microSD cards and/or increase the primary
storage capacity of their devices.
"Demand for storage never stops growing. We will soon see
smartphones with multiple-aperture lenses, phones capable of
shooting UltraHD video and applications for taking and viewing
virtual reality environments,” said Shuki Nir, senior vice
president, corporate marketing and general manager, Retail,
SanDisk. “microSD memory cards will also be instrumental in the
growth of the Internet of Things by lowering the barrier to
experimentation. Two billion is just the beginning, and we look
forward to contributing to future technologies enabled by the
microSD format.”
A decade of SanDisk microSD technology:
- The first microSD cards featured
capacities starting at 32MB. SanDisk’s latest microSD form factor
card is a microSDXC™ that offers up to 200GB of capacity, a 6,250x
increase in just 10 years.
- It took three years for CompactFlash®
cards to reach one million shipments. By contrast, over one million
microSD cards were shipped in the first full quarter of
availability.
- On average, SanDisk has shipped 6.34
microSD cards every second since the formal unveiling of the
specifications.
- If you lined up SanDisk’s two billion
microSD cards end-to-end, they would extend 18,451 miles or
three-quarters of the way around the world.
- In 2014, SanDisk announced the 128GB**
SanDisk Ultra® microSDXC™ UHS-I memory card, a twist on the format
that enabled the company to vertically stack up to 16 memory die in
the same card and expand capacity without changing the footprint of
the device. Each memory die in this microSDXC card is thinner than
a strand of hair.
- In 2015, SanDisk introduced the 200GB*
SanDisk Ultra® microSDXC™ UHS-I memory card, Premium Edition, a
high capacity for the form factor, upping capacity by 56 percent in
just one year.
- SanDisk flash memory cards have held
the number-one market share position worldwide for 13 straight
years2.
With more than 5,000 patents, SanDisk positively impacts many
markets through its flash memory innovations. In recognition of its
achievements, SanDisk was named a Thompson Reuters 2014 Top 100
Global Innovator, an honor the company has received for four
consecutive years.
SanDisk at Mobile World Congress Shanghai
SanDisk also introduced separately today the iNAND® 7232 storage
solution, a new, advanced embedded storage solution optimized to
deliver best-in-class imaging performance and superior storage
capacity in flagship mobile devices. SanDisk will be displaying its
complete line of embedded and removable mobile memory solutions,
including the new iNAND 7232 storage solution, in the company’s
Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2015 booth (Hall 5, Booth #W5
G.90).
About SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a Fortune 500 and S&P
500 company, is a global leader in flash storage solutions. For
more than 27 years, SanDisk has expanded the possibilities of
storage, providing trusted and innovative products that have
transformed the electronics industry. Today, SanDisk’s quality,
state-of-the-art solutions are at the heart of many of the world's
data centers, and embedded in advanced smartphones, tablets and
PCs. SanDisk’s consumer products are available at hundreds of
thousands of retail stores worldwide. For more information, visit
www.sandisk.com.
*1MB = One million bytes. Actual user storage less.
**1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes. Actual user storage less.
1 SpecTraX service from Strategy Analytics
2Source: Gartner Market Share Analysis: Flash Cards and USB
Flash Drives Worldwide, May 2014 – (2001-2014)
© 2015 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk and
CompactFlash are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in
the United States and other countries. microSD and microSDXC are
trademarks of the SD-3C, LLC.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150713005435/en/
SanDisk CorporationMichael Diamond,
408-801-1108Michael.Diamond@sandisk.com
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