What Is The Bottom Line?

There will continue to be multiple flash card technologies to meet a variety of needs. As has happened in the removable media world, where there were the 1.44MB Floppy, 2.88MB Floppy, SuperDisk, Zip, Syquest, and Jaz, not all of these formats will survive. In fact, only half of them are still around. We think that Flash Memory technology will go the same route. You can expect some of the lesser supported formats to disappear, but we don't think that is going to happen soon. In the meantime, you can use innovative products like the FlashGO! and the Pro II to help bridge the gap.

We don't think that there will ever just be one format, but with some research and good planning, you can reduce the amount of flash cards that you buy. We recommend that you move toward one of the major formats if you can. At the moment, it would appear that Compact Flash and Smart Media are ahead of the pack, but perhaps that is only because they were first out of the gate. Currently, we consider SD and MMC to be behind the curve. And, some companies would have you believe that it is the other way around.

We remember the VHS vs. Beta format wars, and one thing that we learned from that is that the best technology doesn't always win. We would be hard pressed not to recommend Compact Flash with its greater storage capacity, but Smart Media does have a foot hold in the current market that no one can ignore.

In the meantime, the card manufacturers and retailers will still make plenty of "flash ca$h" and the consumer will continue to struggle to understand what it all means, and to spend money they wouldn't have to spend if things were more standardized. The industry is responsible for this headache, as companies are trying to make you pay for the same, or improved, versions of the same technology multiple times, and the industry needs to remedy this.