PMA Newsline International Release 19/12/03

SD Memory Card sales surpass CompactFlash Card sales in October

The SD Memory Card has passed the CompactFlash Card, to take the top position in market share among memory cards, according to the most recent sales data available from The NPD Group. The SD Memory Card captured the number one position with 30 percent of the U.S. flash memory market in October against 28.8 percent for the CompactFlash Card. In third place was Memory Stick, with a 22 percent market share. Panasonic is a co-developer of SD Memory cards along with Toshiba and SanDisk.

  Joseph Unsworth, analyst - Semiconductor Memories for Gartner Inc., noted: “The recent success of the SD Card in the retail channel is in line with my expectations of the SD Card becoming the leading flash card format. The SD Card is well-positioned in terms of performance, cost, and industry support across many applications and that is why I expect the SD card to have the largest share of revenue of all of the flash card formats in 2004.”

A total of 1,524 products worldwide, carrying 134 of the world’s foremost brand names, currently use the SD Memory Card. The format is further supported by the more than 650 members of the SD Card Association, a consortium working to set industry standards and promote the acceptance of SD Memory Cards in a wide variety of applications.