Jon3G
1st June 2005, 12:32 PM
Memory jungle
May 26, 2005
Total disarray would be an accurate description for the current state of the mobile memory card market. Yet theres massive interest from both vendors and consumers in expanding a handsets available memory. Plus the first music album (Robbie Williams Greatest Hits, available from The Carphone Warehouse) and the first film (The Shawshank Redemption from Rok) have already been sold on memory cards. So heres a quick guide to the memory card jungle and some tips on surviving it.
Until recently, most consumers were blissfully unaware that their handset even possessed a removable memory card, as it was frequently hidden away underneath the battery. The very latest models have changed all that. Handsets such as the Nokia 6630 boast an accessible card slot that allows you to insert or change a memory card while the handset is still switched on.
Having hot swappable cards opens the door to myriad applications. For example, if the handsets bundled 64MB card has filled up with photos, videos and music clips, its easy to swap over to a new, empty card. Furthermore, memory cards have become the handset equivalent of a CD. Suppliers are now starting to distribute their handset software on memory cards. A good example here is Navicore, which sells satellite navigation software for Symbian-based Series 60 phones.
Content kings
The network operators love it because theres room left over on our cards for purchasers to store their own content like pictures, videos and MP3s, explains Navicore UK country manager William Morgan. Its software is supplied on 256 MB, dual-voltage MMC cards [see overleaf]. Theyre slightly more expensive but were prepared to take the hit since [resellers] only have to stock the one product. Hopefully dual-voltage will come down in price soon.
The catch for software vendors is that handset vendors are split into three camps over memory cards. Nokia currently favours the MMC format for memory cards; Sony Ericsson is sticking (surprise, surprise) with the Sony MemoryStick; while others like Samsung, Siemens and Motorola favour SD cards. Worse still, memory cards themselves are shrinking so that they dont consume too much handset real estate the smaller the card, the smaller the handset can be.
Fortunately for those who want to cater for anyone expanding their handsets memory, theres help at hand. One supplier, SanDisk, is pretty unique in making every type of handset memory card you can imagine. So if you get stuck, its website has a guide to which card a particular make and model of handset will accept. SanDisk is keen on both promoting its own brand and targeting the mobile phone reseller. All we do is Flash memory, says Northern European sales manager Keith Norman. All of the signs point to the future in memory cards lying with mobile handsets.
Ringtone
According to David Flack, director of sales and marketing with specialist card distributor Catalus, one of the easiest ways of making consumers aware that memory cards are designed for handsets is to preload them with content such as ringtones. That helps make cards appeal to the youth market too, Flack claims.
Asked which type of card sells the best, Flack claims that MMC cards currently lead the market, because thats the standard that Nokia picked. When it comes to purchasing cards, Flack reckons theres a noticeable difference between high street customers, who will typically upgrade to a 128MB file because theyre price sensitive, and online customers, who tend to be more technology savvy and go for 256MB or even 512MB.
Music maestro
By contrast, Keith Norman believes theres a big difference between people who use their handsets to play MP3 music files and other regular activities such as taking photos and video recording. Music handset owners go for 512MB whereas non-music purchasers tend to select 128MB cards, he says.
However, he thinks Nokia is backing the wrong horse by sticking with the MMC format. Its an old standard and non-secure, whereas DRM [Digital Rights Management] is fast becoming a very, very hot topic. He therefore believes that the market will eventually go for SD and MemoryStick, which unlike MMC cards have their own in-built security.
The release of the full-length feature film, The Shawshank Redemption, was something of a breakthrough for the Rok Entertainment group. The film retails for £19.99 on a 64MB MMC and runs on 13 different Nokia models.
At present the company goes through regular distribution channels with Dangaard in Europe and 20:20 Logistics here in the UK. Rok claims to have already signed up three major high street retailers, although it declined to name names.
Group marketing director Bruce Renny revealed that the companys main thrust will be principally towards phone stores in the UK because theyre heavily staffed, and smartcards are an obvious sell for them. By mid-June, cards featuring the Rok player will be in hundreds of stores across the country and eventually tens of thousands across Europe. Were expanding as fast as we reasonably can. As well as film and video, Roks content also includes music and games.
About a year ago there were around ten different [card] formats out there, but Nokia has made it very plain that it intends to standardise on the Reduced Size MMC cards, Renny says. Our product comes with a spacer [holster] which enables it to work with older handsets like the 6600 anyway.
Card sharks
Renny claims that Rok will soon have a range of 100 titles and is fast expanding the number of handset models that its product will work with. The company has just added the Sony Ericsson P900 and P910 handsets and we hope to support Microsoft handsets shortly, he says. After that Rok aims to support Motorola/Linux-based smartphones.
One of Roks chief sales weapons will be price. The typical price for a ringtone these days is about £3, Renny says. Against that, a Rok card sells for around £16. But you get 20 video clips and 20 audio clips on a card which, if you bought them individually, would normally cost £120. Thats good value.
Another memory card enthusiast is Sony Ericssons marketing manager Richard Dorman, who points out that the companys W800 Walkman handset ships with a 512MB Pro Duo card (pictured above). A 2GB data card is already available from Sony and I expect to see a 4GB card around Q1 2006, Dorman reveals. 4GB is, of course, the same capacity as the hard disk on Nokias recently-announced N91 phone.
Memory cards might be confusing but theyre a natural fit for mobile resellers. The phone store is also the obvious place for consumers to seek advice.
Better still, higher capacity cards are getting cheaper. As David Flack says: As sure as eggs are eggs, the price of memory is sure to fall as soon as higher capacity cards become available.
Memory card profusion confusion
From a resellers perspective, stocking memory cards is a nightmare. For starters, there are three different formats. Nokia has always favoured the MMC (MultiMedia Card) format, which came out first. MMC was, in theory, superseded by the SD (Secure Digital) format that has been supported by Samsung, Siemens and Motorola. Additionally, Sony Ericsson has so far favoured Sonys own MemoryStick.
To further complicate matters, these formats have been steadily shrinking in size to make them more suitable for use inside handsets. So now we have RS-MMC (Reduced Size-MMC) and miniSD cards. Additionally, SanDisk has produced the TransFlash card, which has now become the (even smaller) microSD card, and Samsung showed a handset at CeBit that sported an MMC-micro card (smaller than RS-MMC).
Theres also the MemoryStick Pro Duo, which is smaller than a standard Pro card. Incidentally, NEC provided some handsets to 3 which took the original MemoryStick Pro cards.
Luckily, manufacturers can supply adapters/holsters that enable smaller cards to be retrofitted into the older, larger slots. So theres an adapter for a miniSD card, for example, which enables it to fit SD slots. Furthermore handsets with SD slots can read MMC cards but MMC machines dont accept SD cards.
There is one final complication. The very latest Nokia handsets like the 6630 and 6680 need low-voltage RS-MMC cards. To cater for this, manufacturers have introduced Dual Voltage (DV) RS-MMC cards. Theyre backward compatible with older handsets but will work in the new low voltage phones too.
What a memory card can hold
As Rok points out, a 64MB card can now hold one full-length feature film. The same card could also hold around 42 digital photos, 190 minutes of holiday video, 128 Microsoft Office documents, or 120,000 contacts. A 128MB card could hold around 32 songs or three CDs. A 512MB card can store around eight hours of MP3-quality music files.
Size matters. Due to their smaller size, the largest capacity of a dual-voltage RS-MMC card is presently 256MB. That compares to 2GB for regular MMC cards or MemoryStick Duo cards.
© Copyright 2005 : Noble House Media Ltd
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/artman-test/publish/article_417.shtml
May 26, 2005
Total disarray would be an accurate description for the current state of the mobile memory card market. Yet theres massive interest from both vendors and consumers in expanding a handsets available memory. Plus the first music album (Robbie Williams Greatest Hits, available from The Carphone Warehouse) and the first film (The Shawshank Redemption from Rok) have already been sold on memory cards. So heres a quick guide to the memory card jungle and some tips on surviving it.
Until recently, most consumers were blissfully unaware that their handset even possessed a removable memory card, as it was frequently hidden away underneath the battery. The very latest models have changed all that. Handsets such as the Nokia 6630 boast an accessible card slot that allows you to insert or change a memory card while the handset is still switched on.
Having hot swappable cards opens the door to myriad applications. For example, if the handsets bundled 64MB card has filled up with photos, videos and music clips, its easy to swap over to a new, empty card. Furthermore, memory cards have become the handset equivalent of a CD. Suppliers are now starting to distribute their handset software on memory cards. A good example here is Navicore, which sells satellite navigation software for Symbian-based Series 60 phones.
Content kings
The network operators love it because theres room left over on our cards for purchasers to store their own content like pictures, videos and MP3s, explains Navicore UK country manager William Morgan. Its software is supplied on 256 MB, dual-voltage MMC cards [see overleaf]. Theyre slightly more expensive but were prepared to take the hit since [resellers] only have to stock the one product. Hopefully dual-voltage will come down in price soon.
The catch for software vendors is that handset vendors are split into three camps over memory cards. Nokia currently favours the MMC format for memory cards; Sony Ericsson is sticking (surprise, surprise) with the Sony MemoryStick; while others like Samsung, Siemens and Motorola favour SD cards. Worse still, memory cards themselves are shrinking so that they dont consume too much handset real estate the smaller the card, the smaller the handset can be.
Fortunately for those who want to cater for anyone expanding their handsets memory, theres help at hand. One supplier, SanDisk, is pretty unique in making every type of handset memory card you can imagine. So if you get stuck, its website has a guide to which card a particular make and model of handset will accept. SanDisk is keen on both promoting its own brand and targeting the mobile phone reseller. All we do is Flash memory, says Northern European sales manager Keith Norman. All of the signs point to the future in memory cards lying with mobile handsets.
Ringtone
According to David Flack, director of sales and marketing with specialist card distributor Catalus, one of the easiest ways of making consumers aware that memory cards are designed for handsets is to preload them with content such as ringtones. That helps make cards appeal to the youth market too, Flack claims.
Asked which type of card sells the best, Flack claims that MMC cards currently lead the market, because thats the standard that Nokia picked. When it comes to purchasing cards, Flack reckons theres a noticeable difference between high street customers, who will typically upgrade to a 128MB file because theyre price sensitive, and online customers, who tend to be more technology savvy and go for 256MB or even 512MB.
Music maestro
By contrast, Keith Norman believes theres a big difference between people who use their handsets to play MP3 music files and other regular activities such as taking photos and video recording. Music handset owners go for 512MB whereas non-music purchasers tend to select 128MB cards, he says.
However, he thinks Nokia is backing the wrong horse by sticking with the MMC format. Its an old standard and non-secure, whereas DRM [Digital Rights Management] is fast becoming a very, very hot topic. He therefore believes that the market will eventually go for SD and MemoryStick, which unlike MMC cards have their own in-built security.
The release of the full-length feature film, The Shawshank Redemption, was something of a breakthrough for the Rok Entertainment group. The film retails for £19.99 on a 64MB MMC and runs on 13 different Nokia models.
At present the company goes through regular distribution channels with Dangaard in Europe and 20:20 Logistics here in the UK. Rok claims to have already signed up three major high street retailers, although it declined to name names.
Group marketing director Bruce Renny revealed that the companys main thrust will be principally towards phone stores in the UK because theyre heavily staffed, and smartcards are an obvious sell for them. By mid-June, cards featuring the Rok player will be in hundreds of stores across the country and eventually tens of thousands across Europe. Were expanding as fast as we reasonably can. As well as film and video, Roks content also includes music and games.
About a year ago there were around ten different [card] formats out there, but Nokia has made it very plain that it intends to standardise on the Reduced Size MMC cards, Renny says. Our product comes with a spacer [holster] which enables it to work with older handsets like the 6600 anyway.
Card sharks
Renny claims that Rok will soon have a range of 100 titles and is fast expanding the number of handset models that its product will work with. The company has just added the Sony Ericsson P900 and P910 handsets and we hope to support Microsoft handsets shortly, he says. After that Rok aims to support Motorola/Linux-based smartphones.
One of Roks chief sales weapons will be price. The typical price for a ringtone these days is about £3, Renny says. Against that, a Rok card sells for around £16. But you get 20 video clips and 20 audio clips on a card which, if you bought them individually, would normally cost £120. Thats good value.
Another memory card enthusiast is Sony Ericssons marketing manager Richard Dorman, who points out that the companys W800 Walkman handset ships with a 512MB Pro Duo card (pictured above). A 2GB data card is already available from Sony and I expect to see a 4GB card around Q1 2006, Dorman reveals. 4GB is, of course, the same capacity as the hard disk on Nokias recently-announced N91 phone.
Memory cards might be confusing but theyre a natural fit for mobile resellers. The phone store is also the obvious place for consumers to seek advice.
Better still, higher capacity cards are getting cheaper. As David Flack says: As sure as eggs are eggs, the price of memory is sure to fall as soon as higher capacity cards become available.
Memory card profusion confusion
From a resellers perspective, stocking memory cards is a nightmare. For starters, there are three different formats. Nokia has always favoured the MMC (MultiMedia Card) format, which came out first. MMC was, in theory, superseded by the SD (Secure Digital) format that has been supported by Samsung, Siemens and Motorola. Additionally, Sony Ericsson has so far favoured Sonys own MemoryStick.
To further complicate matters, these formats have been steadily shrinking in size to make them more suitable for use inside handsets. So now we have RS-MMC (Reduced Size-MMC) and miniSD cards. Additionally, SanDisk has produced the TransFlash card, which has now become the (even smaller) microSD card, and Samsung showed a handset at CeBit that sported an MMC-micro card (smaller than RS-MMC).
Theres also the MemoryStick Pro Duo, which is smaller than a standard Pro card. Incidentally, NEC provided some handsets to 3 which took the original MemoryStick Pro cards.
Luckily, manufacturers can supply adapters/holsters that enable smaller cards to be retrofitted into the older, larger slots. So theres an adapter for a miniSD card, for example, which enables it to fit SD slots. Furthermore handsets with SD slots can read MMC cards but MMC machines dont accept SD cards.
There is one final complication. The very latest Nokia handsets like the 6630 and 6680 need low-voltage RS-MMC cards. To cater for this, manufacturers have introduced Dual Voltage (DV) RS-MMC cards. Theyre backward compatible with older handsets but will work in the new low voltage phones too.
What a memory card can hold
As Rok points out, a 64MB card can now hold one full-length feature film. The same card could also hold around 42 digital photos, 190 minutes of holiday video, 128 Microsoft Office documents, or 120,000 contacts. A 128MB card could hold around 32 songs or three CDs. A 512MB card can store around eight hours of MP3-quality music files.
Size matters. Due to their smaller size, the largest capacity of a dual-voltage RS-MMC card is presently 256MB. That compares to 2GB for regular MMC cards or MemoryStick Duo cards.
© Copyright 2005 : Noble House Media Ltd
http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/artman-test/publish/article_417.shtml