Lexar and Kodak Introduce KODAK xD-Picture Cards
Lexar Media, Inc. 27/09/04
Lexar and Kodak Expand Flash Memory Card Offering With the Introduction of KODAK xD-Picture Cards
COLOGNE, Germany, September 29, 2004—Lexar Media, Inc. (Nasdaq: LEXR), and Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK), announced today the continued expansion of KODAK flash memory cards with the introduction of KODAK xD-Picture Cards. The addition of the xD-Picture Card continues the companies’ commitment to offer consumers a range of popular digital media formats. Lexar will distribute and market KODAK xD-Picture Cards through both Lexar and Kodak’s global retail distribution channels beginning in the fourth quarter of 2004.
“Retailers and distributors worldwide are eager to begin offering KODAK xD-Picture Cards to more fully meet the consumer demand spurred by the popularity of digital photography,” said Bobby Billman, vice president of marketing, Lexar. “With this addition to the KODAK memory card line, we are offering a wider variety of products that people trust for capturing and preserving their memories - hallmarks of Kodak.”
The xD-Picture Card is one of the smallest flash memory card formats for digital cameras and accounted for 12.8 percent of the total U.S. flash memory card market in June, according to NPD Group. The xD-Picture Cards offer large capacities for high mega-pixel photos and can support a maximum future capacity of 8 gigabytes.
“KODAK media cards are already enjoying widespread market acceptance,” noted Peter Jameson of Kodak. “Kodak’s and Lexar’s ability to place media cards in new retail channels and locations provides significant opportunity to broaden how people view and use removable memory.”
Announced in May, Lexar and Kodak formed a long-term relationship to gain a larger share of the market for removable digital memory products, driven by surging demand from the mass-market adoption of digital cameras, mobile phone cameras, portable music players and other consumer electronics devices.
About Eastman Kodak Company
Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print and view images - for memories, for information, for entertainment. The company is a major participant in infoimaging, a $385 billion industry composed of devices (digital cameras and flat-panel displays), infrastructure (online networks and delivery systems for images) and services & media (software, film and paper enabling people to access, analyze and print images). With sales of $13.3 billion in 2003, the company comprises several businesses: Health, supplying the healthcare industry with traditional and digital image capture and output products and services; Graphic Communications Group, offering on-demand color printing and networking publishing systems consisting of three wholly owned subsidiaries: Encad, Inc., NexPress Solutions, and Kodak Versamark; Commercial Imaging, offering image capture, output and storage products and services to businesses and government; Display & Components, which designs and manufactures state-of-the-art organic light-emitting diode displays as well as other specialty materials, and delivers imaging sensors to original equipment manufacturers; and Digital & Film Imaging Systems, providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services. For more information visit www.kodak.com.
About Lexar Media, Inc.
Lexar is a leading marketer and manufacturer of flash memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers and ATA controller technology for the digital photography, consumer electronics, industrial and communications markets. The company holds over 76 issued or allowed controller and system patents, and licenses its technology to companies including Olympus, Samsung Electronics, SanDisk Corporation and Sony. For more information, please call 1-800-789-9418 or visit www.lexar.com