Sony's Memory Stick Finally Catching On

Sony, which has been trying to grab the flash-memory market for nearly three years, is finally making some progress. The consumer electronics giant initially introduced the Memory Stick removable flash-memory card to a lukewarm response in fall 1998. But lately, Memory Stick has been grabbing a larger share of the flash-memory market.

Recent figures from market researcher NPD Intelect show that U.S. market share for competing technologies CompactFlash and Smart Media have been declining, while Memory Stick's share has been increasing. In spring 2000, CompactFlash held a commanding 51 percent of the market. Smart Media controlled 41 percent of the market. Memory Stick trailed far behind with 7 percent. A year later, CompactFlash has dropped to 40 percent market share and Smart Media has fallen to 32 percent. Meanwhile, Memory Stick has shot up to 25 percent.

Currently, Sony sells 8MB to 128MB Memory Sticks that range in price from to . Next year, the company expects to release a 256MB version, followed by 1GB and 2GB versions by 2003. Sony also plans to boost data transfer rates from the current 2.5MB per second to 20MB per second by 2003. And by next year, Sony plans to expand Memory Stick to include versions that act as GPS (Global Positioning System) receivers and digital cameras.

Read the entire story at ZDNet News.