By Keith Newman, Nov 16

High capacity miniature memory cards that can transfer files between computers, cameras and cellphones offer a new spin on the old ‘sneakernet’ concept, challenging forever the way we store and share information.

Sneakernet was pre-internet slang for manually moving data between computers using floppy disks. A few years back it looked like the floppy disk with its frustrating 2Mb limitations had reached the end of the line with the arrival of the PC card.

I purchased a PCMCIA (people can’t memorise computer industry acronyms) reader for my PC and a 100Mb removable hard disk believing I was at the leading edge with my ability to share large files with my laptop. For some reason the new drives never migrated past laptops and only modems and network cards made the mainstream - removable memory cards just didn’t catch on.

The idea is however gaining momentum across the consumer electronics industry and should soon extend across all digital devices. Next year we’re likely to see a showdown for dominance of next generation solid-state memory market that could challenge the floppy disk and even back-up tapes and the recordable CD.

Last time Japanese giants Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sony faced off it was over the future of the video cassette with the VHS format winning out over Sony’s Beta proposal. They’re in opposite and incompatible camps with high-quality formats to replace CDs and determine the future of the DVD recorder but for now there’s Sony’s Memory Stick (MS) and Panasonic’s Secured Digital (SD) memory card are locking horns in a major marketing war.

MS and SD are taking ground from well-established flash memory formats including CompactFlash and SmartMedia. Both want to become the industry standard as they attempt to carve out a slice of the digital consumer goods market likely to be worth $US23.69 billion by 2003. Sony has had a good three years head start with MS technology up from 7 per cent share last year to 25 per cent by June 2001.

Sony has opened up to licensing deals with Fujitsu and Lexar Media and actively begun to embrace developers after a period of trying to go it alone. Shipments of the stick-of-gum sized MS cards hit 15 million units in the year to October with claims it’ll reach 120 million compatible units by 2004. It has 157 licensees including General Motors, Sharp, Alpine car stereos, Epson and Hewlett Packard printers and Palm Computing among its partners

Sony’s rapidly emerging rival is the smaller postage stamp-sized (24 x 32mm) card Secured Digital (SD) memory card, developed by Matsushita, Toshiba Corp. and US-based SanDisk Corp. The SD card is a relative newcomer, likely to begin taking noticeable market share from this year. To date there are 300 partners committed including Toshiba, IBM, Microsoft, Canon, Sharp, JVC, Motorola, Eastman Kodak and Toyota who’ve delivered around 90 products to market in the past six months.

Both memory cards come in 4Mb, 8Mb, 16Mb, 32Mb and 64Mb and 128Mb versions with Sony planning 256Mb and 512 Mb next year. SD will go one further with 1Gb and 2GB cards late 2002. The price of sticks and cards has reduced significantly this year, for example 64Mb SD cards are down from $400 to $270 another cut is planned before mid-2002.

Matsushta and Sony are trying to get onside with the music industry with secure formats to protect copyrighted material and bridge the enormous gap opened up by the MP3 internet download market. The SD for example is compliant with SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative) requirements allowing users to record to only three other cards. The hardwired software detects second-generation recordings and how many times they’ve been rewritten.

The SD uses advanced audio coding (AAC) which compresses files tighter than MP3 yet results in better sound. MP3 files downloaded to the card are automatically converted to AAC.

SD has also moved up to MP4 (motion picture experts group layer 4) compression, which will allow storage of 18 minutes of video on a 64Mb card or 1Mb per minute for audio. Various levels of storage are possible with the highest quality giving 64 minutes of playback at ‘greater than CD quality’ on a 64Mb card but extending to 128 minutes at lesser quality.

A reader/writer is already available for $NZ189 which plugs into the universal serial bus (USB) on existing computers and laptops, although Panasonic and Toshiba notebooks and Compaq and Palm PDAs plus printers, cameras and projectors are now coming standard with SD slots.

Within four years it’s possible memory cards will become commodity items like floppy discs selling for as low $2 each. Once the 1-2Gb versions are released late next year a new era for portable media begins which will challenge the dominance of the CD. Already some CD burners include an SD slot so discs can be copied direct to the cards.

As an increasing array of products hit the market with proprietary MS and SD slots consumers will be forced to align with one camp or the other if they want interoperable electronic devices.