SanDisk Unveils the Highest Capacity
Memory Stick PRO Storage Card in the World-2 Gigabytes
January 2004 (Newstream) -- SanDisk
Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) today introduced a 2 gigabyte (GB) SanDisk Memory StickŪ
PRO™, the highest capacity available in this card format. SanDisk also introduced the
first Memory Stick PRO Duo cards that it has designed and manufactured. The new cards were
introduced at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show where SanDisk is
demonstrating products in Booth #23062, South Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center.
Sony and SanDisk jointly pioneered Memory
Stick PRO to meet the growing consumer need for high performance and high capacity flash
cards for a wide variety of digital devices including digital cameras, camcorders and
PDAs. These new cards are manufactured by and include advanced technology from SanDisk to
assure optimal performance and large capacities at very competitive prices. SanDisk meets
or exceeds all Memory Stick PRO specifications and performs extensive testing to guarantee
compatibility.
"SanDisk has dramatically extended
its commitment to the Memory Stick flash card format by upping our investment in design,
manufacturing, technology and the channel to rapidly grow the market," said Nelson
Chan, senior vice president and general manager of SanDisk's retail business unit.
"The company has leveraged its expertise to deliver new Memory Stick PRO and PRO Duo
cards at competitive prices in line with other industry-standard card formats such as the
SD card. Through this renewed focus on the Memory Stick card format, we intend to deliver
the best overall price/performance and value to our customers."
The new SanDisk MS PRO and MS PRO Duo
cards are now distinguished by their outer blue plastic shells that represent the standard
look across all of SanDisk's mainstream memory cards. MS PRO Duo cards are roughly half
the size of MS PRO and are intended for use in smaller sized digital devices. An adapter
is included with every MS PRO Duo and can be used in MS PRO compatible devices.
The new Memory Stick PRO and PRO Duo
cards have security features that let consumers safeguard their pictures, music and video
from being lost or erased by accidentally removing the card while it is in use. For
commercial content providers, the new format includes the MagicGate™ copyright
technology, which provides secure protection of commercial and copyrighted content, such
as digital music and, in the future, video and games.
Memory Stick PRO-enabled devices can
capture and play back DVD-quality video in real time as well as store multiple hours of
CD-quality music, high-resolution digital images and other applications that require high
performance and large capacities.
SanDisk Memory Stick PRO cards are
expected to be available in February 2004 with capacities that range from 256MB to 2GB and
suggested list prices from $100 to $1,000.
SanDisk-manufactured Memory Stick PRO Duo
cards are expected to be available Q1 2004 at a suggested list price of $104.99 and
$224.99 for the 256MB and 512MB capacities respectively (Memory Stick Pro adapter
included).
SanDisk, the world's largest supplier of
flash data storage products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard,
solid-state data, digital imaging and audio storage products using its patented, high
density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is based in Sunnyvale, CA.
The matters discussed in this news
release contain forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and
uncertainties as described under the caption, "Factors That May Affect Future
Results" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form
10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. SanDisk cannot guarantee that it
will succeed to manufacture competitively the Memory Stick PRO or Memory Stick PRO Duo.
The company assumes no obligation to update the information in this release.
