subject: Why SD Cards dominate the storage devices market [print this page] Why SD Cards dominate the storage devices market
The SD storage card, or Secure Data card, dominates the hand held / portable data storage devices market. SD technology is the accepted industry standard data capture device for digital stills cameras, digital video cameras, mobile phones, MP3 music players, car navigation systems, personal computers, printers and electronic books amongst other consumer electronic equipment. In fact, SD cards are used in approximately 400 portable electronic devices across a plethora of product categories, making an appearance in more than 8,000 models.
In order to understand how important the SD card is, we need to appreciate that the development of the hand held and portable devices market has been reliant on the production of diminutive data capture media, without which, these products would not have been able to shrink in size in the way that they have. If we take the mobile phone as an example of how SD cards have shaped the course of market penetration, it is easy to see that product development would have been severely inhibited.
The original mobile phone is a far cry from the pocket sized devices that we all use today, and had more in common with radio devices used by the army whilst on manoeuvres than it does with the eminently portable, technically sophisticated handsets that we now take for granted. The first release mobile phones were the size of a household brick, had an antenna that was easily 10 centimetres in length and was powered by a battery pack that was so heavy it had to be mounted in a shoulder bag! When we consider that all of this kit was needed to merely make and receive calls, we can begin to appreciate the technological progress that has been made in such a short space of time. In just over thirty years we can now use mobile phones to deliver an incredible suite of services. It has become our alarm clock, watch, calculator, sat nav, internet browser, email console, gaming device, stills and video camera, music player, and has even begun to replace newspapers and magazines as a preferred means of gathering news and information. We also use it to make purchases.
Clearly, the size of the original batteries used to power the old mobile phones had to undergo equally heavy development in order to transform into something that possessed endurance as well as being a fraction of the size, but it is the evolution of the SD card that permits such broad usage of the handsets that are currently on offer. Without the means of storing data the function of mobile phones, particularly smartphones, would be severely impaired.
Even Sony, who developed the Sony memory stick as an alternative to the SD storage card has begun producing their own branded SD cards. Although they haven't ceased production of the memory stick, their latest portable product range now support both media. As the Sony memory stick was the only really viable alternative to the SD card, this development in Sony strategy has effectively declared the SD card as the undisputed King of the portable storage media market.
