BARCELONA, Spain – The SD Association released the next-generation SD memory card specification, SDXC (eXtended Capacity), Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and says the technology could help “smart phones get smarter.”
SD memory cards are used in some 400 products across dozens of product categories and in more than 8,000 models, allowing consumers to capture video, photos, and sound in a simple format. It is the industry standard for mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 music players, personal computers, printers, car navigation systems, electronic books, and other consumer electronic devices.
SDXC storage capacity and transfer speeds promise to “transform digital lifestyles and work styles” and increase flexibility for carriers and handset manufacturers. Massive storage and fast transfer rates enable consumers to buy, and carriers to push, more content and services for mobile handsets.
Electronic devices containing the SDXC memory card will be able to download content faster than ever before, with SD interface read/write speeds bumped up to 104 MB per second in 2009, and plans to increase that to 300 MB. They will also increase storage capacity from 32 GB up to 2 TB (or, an estimated 100 HD movies, 480 hours of HD recording or 136,000 fine-mode photos), the press release said.
"SDXC helps smart phone users move lighter without compromise, confident that every data and multimedia file is accessible and transferrable between thousands of devices from their phones," said James Taylor, president of the SD Association, in the release. "The ease of use and deep penetration of the SD interface across all consumer electronic devices are strong indicators for future widespread adoption of the SDXC specification, especially in mobile phones."
iSuppli’s latest Data Flash Market Tracker for the fourth quarter of 2008 estimates that 78% of all mobile phones with removable memory card slots feature the SD interface, and projects an 85% market penetration by 2012.
