Memory Cards Infiltrate Consumer Market

Portable solid-state memory has many uses for consumers, from storing digital images that you want to transfer to your computer to moving tunes between the different listening devices you've acquired. In fact, I recently bought a new cell phone just because it has a memory card. After dropping a few cell phones in my time and having to reenter dozens of phone numbers, I figure that it'll be easier to just move a little memory card into the new phone after I manage to destroy the one I have now. How many of the little devils will make their way into consumer devices? Well, its difficult to quantify except as a dollar value, but according to Cahners In-Stat Group, the memory card market will reach $2.6 billion by 2005. The firm says that the short-term forecast for memory card manufacturers isn't as hunky-dory as the long-term, which it attributes to a volatile market for flash memory chips leading to rapidly falling prices (good for us, bad for those trying to turn a profit selling them). In-Stat says there are about 30 manufacturers of CompactFlash cards and over 100 suppliers, and the highest capacity product is the 1GB IBM Microdrive. Digital still cameras are the highest volume application for CompactFlash cards while PDAs and handheld computers are a rapidly developing growth segment. The report, called "Flash Flood: The Growing Market for Memory Cards in Consumer Applications" puts forth a review of the 2000 market for memory cards, as well as a forecast through 2005. Breakdowns are provided by application and memory card type, in terms of both units and revenues. You can check out the Table of Contents for the report online , but if you need all of the info, the full report will set you back $2,495 USD.