Flash In The News
One of the announcements coming from MWC2015 today was the release of a frightfully capacious flash memory card from SanDisk
The company positions the product as targeting those who want to collect and carry massive amounts of media in their handheld devices. You can expect to put 20 hours of VC1 encoded 1080p video on the tiny card.
At first glance, I am at a loss to know why I would truly need such vast storage in a tiny flash card. However, Alan Buckingham provides some enlightenment via Beta News. He notes that there are a coming wave of security cameras that require substantial local media storage. This also came up in conversation with Grandstream during VUC529. Some of their surveillance cameras & encoders sport USB or SD-based local storage capability.
At $399 the monster SanDisk card is not exactly cheap, but it’s still only $2/GB. That’s a bargain compared to Sony’s SR-64HXA audiophile microSDXC card. Announced at CES2015, the 64 GB Class 10 card has an asking price of $155. That’s $2.42/GB. It’s marketed in Japan as “for Premium Sound,” presumably targeting those who would also shell out $1200 for their latest ZX2 uber-walkman.
In contrast, Amazon has SanDisk Extreme 64GB UHS-I/U3 Micro SDXC Memory Card for just $45, which is just $0.70/GB. For my money, that’s where I’d put my bits, be they music or other.
Sony has clearly lost it’s way. Although, there is a long and storied history of depriving the rubes of their currency. This holds especially true in the realm of audiophiliacs. Witness Audioquest, who offers a $10k audiophile Ethernet cable. P.T. Barnum would be proud.