The SD Memory Card continues to be the leading semiconductor memory card for the wireless communications industry, as cellular handset marketing giants Nokia and Sony Ericsson join the SD Card Association (SDA).
Nokia, the world’s foremost handset maker with over 30 percent market share worldwide, joined SDA as a member of its Board of Directors. Sony Ericsson is the world’s largest producer of mobile networks and third largest handset
supplier. Sony Ericsson and Nokia join Motorola, Samsung, palmOne, Sharp, Panasonic, Toshiba, NEC, Fujitsu, Kyocera and other leading marketers of SD and miniSD-enabled mobile phones around the world.
The SD Memory Card is the number one semiconductor memory card in use worldwide today, and is found in a wide array of consumer electronics products such as digital cameras, camcorders, PDAs, laptop computers, digital
audio players and many other products. In total, 2,877 models in 31 product categories by 238 brands supporting the SD standard have been shipped to date.
According to market analyst firm Gartner, Inc., the SD Card has shown impressive growth since its introduction in 2000, capturing 30 percent of the worldwide market in revenue in 2003. Gartner projects SD’s share to increase to 38 percent by 2008.
In the United States, this figure is even higher. According to market research from NPD, SD commanded 36.9 percent of the flash memory card market in 2004 (January – August).
“With mobile phones now offering built-in, high-resolution camera functions, content downloading capabilities, and compatibility with PC data, there is a clear need for removable memory cards that support these capabilities,” said Ray Creech, President, SD Card Association. “The SD format offers the size, speed, interoperability and security that mobile
phone manufacturers, network operators and consumers require.”
Mobile phone users increasingly demand more sophisticated applications from devices. Handset manufacturers are looking to add capabilities such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and more to next-generation handsets. The SD Memory Card and miniSD Card are uniquely poised to support these functions, especially through SDIO.
“This is the fruition of the hard work the SDA’s Mobile Phone Task Force, formed earlier this year, and shows the SD Memory Card’s strength in the wireless communications industry,” said John P. Burnham, Global Director of Marketing Communications for the SDA.
In addition to the Mobile Phone Task Force, the SD Card Association established a Mobile Commerce specification, smartSD, that adds “smart card” security and other functionalities to the format. The SDA also approved the
SD Map Specification that will help enable Location Based Services.