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March 9, 2006 – SanDisk announced its highest capacity 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card today, just two weeks after Sony announced its equivalent product. The higher capacity cards come in response to Sony’s new digital camera releases that offer more megapixels and video functionality. The SanDisk 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card will retail for about $299 in April. This is fifty bucks more than Sony’s card, but is available much earlier than Sony’s July release date.
Cameras like the 7.2-megapixel H5 and the 8.1-megapixel W100 need larger cards in order to snap plenty of full-resolution shots and video. Plus, all Sony digital cameras need the Pro Duo cards to operate the 30 fps rate in the movie mode. With all of these demands, larger cards are necessary.
"As consumers shoot more video on these new digital cameras, they will need more storage capacity," said Susan Park, retail product marketing manager for SanDisk’s standard memory card line, in today’s press release. "The SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo exceeds the minimum performance specifications for a Memory Stick Pro Duo card and is compatible with any device that uses the format."
The SanDisk 4GB card joins the company’s Memory Stick Pro Duo line, which includes capacities of 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB already. Previous cards in this line have been colored light blue, but the 4GB cards will come in a deep blue that gives them a "bolder, brighter look that makes them stand out," Park said. The cards are about half the weight and a third of the size of standard Memory Sticks. Both the SanDisk and the Sony 4GB cards have MagicGate technology that protects copywritten content.
On Feb. 25, Sony also announced its Memory Stick File Rescue Service. This free service, found at http://esupport.sony.com, helps users recover photos or videos that have been accidentally deleted. After registering the Sony card on the site, users can download software that will magically recover the lost files. This service will be effective on all Sony Memory Stick cards from 1998 to the present. The recovery service will launch this summer.