The memory industry has had an unusually volatile time over the last 15 months, and memory manufacturers are paying the price. Even though the company posted a much better than expected forecast for the coming quarter, fears of declining SanDisk flash memory prices – and industry-wide declines – have sent many investors cowering.

The rise and fall

Over the past year, Sandisk’s share price rose a healthy 70 per cent due to stability in the prices of flash memory, coupled with a sharp rise in the sales of smartphones and tablets – where flash memory is used most. The company would then get brutalized this past week with Reuters reporting the company’s share price shed 9.9 per cent of its value after the company reported that gross margins for its fourth quarter results fell short of analyst’s expectations.

It’s all in the margins.

Analysts were expecting median gross margins of 45.2 per cent, but Sandisk only delivered gross margins of 43.7 per cent. What that means is that the profits the company is able to eek out from each sale is falling, attributable either to rising input costs or falling retail prices. In the memory industry’s case, it is the latter.

In fact, the price of memory dropped a steep 15 per cent in the fourth quarter, which means if you’re looking for a good deal on flash sticks, and other forms of flash memory, now is as good time to buy!

Why we agonise over financials

Not all tech readers care much for a company’s financial results. Nevertheless it’s important to take note of them due to the impact they have on the prices of components and products. If the price of Sandisk flash memory is expected to drop, while it may hurt the company, it is certainly a benefit to consumers looking to nab good deals. If you time it well, you get to capitalize heavily.

Storage giants Toshiba and SanDisk have announced a joint venture that will see them build a NAND flash memory chip factory. While the business reasons for the agreement aren’t completely apparent, the hope is this joint initiative will drive down consumer prices of still-expensive flash memory like that found in solid-state drives.

Yokkaichi, we pick you

The factory will be built in Yokkaichi, Japan, and it’s intended to help the companies to stay on top of the growing demand for NAND flash chips. In a joint statement, the companies said the need to develop this factory ‘reflects expectations for increasing demand for NAND flash memory for existing and emerging applications, such as smartphones and solid-state drives.’ It’s a very proactive approach to what, even to us, seems like the inevitable direction storage technology will keep accelerating.

The inner workings of the deal

This venture is not the first time these two work together, with partnerships in some form or another having been formed for the last decade. In addition, the two companies currently develop NAND flash chips technology together, too.

Photo: SanDisk

Though details are still scant on this particular deal, Toshiba is set to operate the factory, while SanDisk pays proportions of production equipment and input costs. The output from the factory will be shared between Toshiba and SanDisk.

The Fab 5 by the fab 2?

The new chip factory called Fab 5 has seen construction commence already. The staggered rollout will see the first phase of the project to be completed in early 2011, with production beginning the middle of 2011, a representative from Toshiba said.

Speaking to PC World, Toshiba declined saying how much money it will invest in the Fab 5 factory, but volunteered information on the company’s three-year program. Beginning April 2010, Toshiba is set to invest $500 billion yen (around £3.7 billion) in equipment and new chip factories. The representative told PC World that 80 per cent of that has been allocated to NAND flash chips technology.

Hurry up, already

We think this is great, and, for solid-state drives, more than anything else, can have a major bearing. The only thing holding consumers back from adopting SSDs wholesale is the impossibly high price, even though the value proposition is very explicit. If NAND flash chips become cheaper, everything built on them becomes cheaper, helping volume sold and saving your pocket from yet another bludgeoning. Bring on the Fab 5.

Some of the best available USB drives include Kingston DataTraveler 101 2GB, Sandisk Cruzer Contour 8GB, Sandisk Cruzer Micro 16GB, Misc. 8GB USB Flash Drive and Misc. 4GB USB Flash Drive. Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB (USB Stick) is an amazing USB. The USB stick has a 4 GB capacity so that you can store all types of audio, videos and various other documents. The read speed of the USB is around 7.0 MB/s and the write speed is 5.0 MB/s. Corsair Flash Voyager GT 16GB is one of the most attractive USB devices available in the market. It has a memory size of 16 GB which allows you to store all sorts of media. The Kingston DataTraveler 101 2GB (USB Stick) is another USB 2.0. The dimensions of the device are 55.65 x 17.3 x 9.05 mm.

Misc. 8GB USB Flash Drive is available in a stylish black colour. It provides 8.0 GB memory so that you can store all sorts of videos and audio. The above mentioned USB drives are available in a compact size and it can be easily carried and transported.

Let us look at some of the memory cards included in this latest version. For serious professional photographers that demand the fastest, most rugged and durable Sandisk memory cards, the Sandisk Extreme III SD is the most suitable choice. The read/write speed of the memory card is 133X and the data transfer rate is 6.0 MB/sec. It features the innovative ESP Technology that provides you the fastest speeds and highest performance. Even in harsh environmental conditions such as extreme temperatures or high altitudes, the card ensures that you are getting the fastest read/write speeds. The memory card also comes with the RescuePRO feature that lets you recover images, documents, mail, or any other digital file with ease. Moreover, the built-in leading-edge media recover algorithms of RescuePRO will allow you to preview and hear the data before retrieving it.

Another product of this series is the Sandisk SDHC Card Ultra II. This high-quality card has a data transfer speed of 4.0 MB/sec. Its higher storage capacity lets you store more photos and videos of longer length.

Some of the Encrypted USB Sticks includes Sandisk Cruzer Micro 256MB, Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB, Kingston DataTraveler 101 4GB, Kingston DataTraveler 200 128GB, Patriot Xporter XT Boost 16GB, Sony Micro Vault Click 16GB etc. The Freecom DataBar USB memory stick has a memory size of 0.5 GB and provides a read speed of 8.0 MB/s. Additionally it also provides a write speed of 7.0 MB/s. Kingston DataTraveler 200 128GB has a huge memory size of 128 GB. It also has an amazing read speed of 20.0 MB/s and a spectacular write speed of 10.0 MB/s. Sandisk Cruzer Micro 8GB is another Encrypted USB Sticks that provides read speed of 7.0 MB/s and write speed of 5.0 MB/s. The Sandisk USB flash drive also naturally uses a USB 2.0 interface.

All these Encrypted USB Sticks are very user friendly and even a layman can use them easily. These are offered in economical prices and are also available easily at a store near your home. The USB sticks are priced according to the memory provided in it.

Besides the 32GB version, the Sandisk USB Flash Drive also comes in 8GB, 16GB and 64GB capacities. Easy and quick to set up, it has handy backup features and no cap. It uses a retractable USB connector that can be pushed back into the body of the drive. It has been encased in ultra-thin plastic body which gives it a flimsy feel. However, the device is lightweight and compact and extremely portable. The SanDisk Ultra Backup 32GB drive is compatible with Skype for VoIP, Trillian for instant messaging and Mozilla’s Firefox Internet browser and all three can be launched directly from drive itself. The external drive also offers custom applications with the U3 technology that allow downloading YouSendIt. Another helpful feature of the drive is that each time it is pressed, the one-touch button backs up all your pre-selected files and folders.

The Sandisk Cruzer is a clever idea which keeps the connector protected when the drive is the bag or your pocket. The Sandisk Cruzer is a U3 smart drive, which means the drive comes with some added security of an optional password protection and it’s also preloaded with various pieces of U3 software. There is a password storage facility, a MacAfee virus scanner, Skype backup program and couple of games like Sudoku and Mahjong.

The Sandisk Cruzer also features ready boost technology and comes in 16GB, 8GB or 4GB models. If the user has Windows Vista, the SanDisk Cruzer allows them to use the flash drive as the extendable to the system memory. It can be pretty handy when it’s time for an upgrade of course it’s not a permanent solution. Finally, when some tests were run on the flash drive the results were impressive. The Sandisk Cruzer Contour 16GB manages a very dependable average write speed of 14Mb/s and an average read speed of 26Mb/s. The verdict for scandisk cruzer contour is that it performs well with an exceptional design

SanDisk claims that the new series of ImageMate Card Readers supports data transfer rate up to 34Mb/s. According to SanDisk senior marketing manager Jennifer Lee, “The new SanDisk ImageMate readers are two of the fastest and most reliable USB readers, capable of transferring one gigabyte of data in less than 35 seconds. The ImageMate readers’ space-saving vertical design makes them unobtrusive on your desk, but with such stylish looks they can’t help but stand out.”

Virtually, you can insert any memory card format into ImageMate External Card Reader. It is compliant with SD, SDHC, miniSDHC, microSDHC cards like the Sandisk microSDHC Card Class 2 16 GB, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro Duo, xD, CompactFlash, and other memory cards. The best feature of this device is its capability to accept multiple cards simultaneously. You can not only transfer data between PC and card but also do card to card data transfer in no time.

With this in mind the world leading manufacturer of flash based storage devices SanDisk has launched a new range of secured flash drives, including the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise and SanDisk Cruzer Professional, that offer native cryptographic services and can be run on both Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. It features hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption and allows OS X users to log in and shut down access to the encrypted storage area, manage passwords, manage contact information and other preferences, as well as upgrade the firmware via Internet. So if you are a Mac lover then the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise is an essential peripheral to have.

]]> http://www.mobile-computing-news.co.uk/uncategorized/782/sandisk-cruzer-enterprise-mac-os-x-gets-secured-flash-drives-as-too.html/feed 0 http://www.mobile-computing-news.co.uk/industry-news/692/veoh-and-sandisk-the-ultimate-combo.html http://www.mobile-computing-news.co.uk/industry-news/692/veoh-and-sandisk-the-ultimate-combo.html#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:49:56 +0000 James http://www.mobile-computing-news.co.uk/?p=692 Almost every Internet surfer is familiar with Veoh. It’s one of the popular web portals that host video content online. Users can log on to such sites to search and view their favorite movies, TV shows, cartoons, sports matches, news clips and much more.

The grey area of this service is that the users have to connect their PC or notebook to the internet. But what if you want to watch your favorite video in the absence of Internet services? There are many places where the World Wide Web is not available for access. For instance, in the airplanes and subways. SanDisk Corp., the world pioneer in flash drives and memory cards manufacturing has come up with a unique solution to solve this issue.

The Consumers who are using the SanDisk Cruzer USB flash drives can now download their favorite stuff from Veoh and save it for future use. A special Veoh player has been designed for this purpose which will let the consumers use their SanDisk flash drives to watch the Veoh videos even when their systems are not connected to the Internet. Another benefit of this service is that it’s completely secure. The SanDisk drive leaves no traces of the watched content in any type of PC. These drives also features password authentication which prevents other people from accessing the downloaded content.