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A guide to media cards

Media Cards

With so many different types of memory/media cards available it’s easy to become confused with all of the variations, so to help you to make informed buying decisions, we at Supreme Imports have come up with a helpful guide that states what each card is used for and which devices they are commonly found in.

So, what is a memory card?

Memory cards are small devices that are used to store electronic data. This can be anything (depending on the device) from photos, music, movies, games, documents, programs and more. And while cards come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are available for a variety of products, all memory cards do essentially the same thing - store data.

What types of devices need memory cards?

  • Digital Cameras
  • Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)
  • Mobile Phones
  • Portable Game Devices
  • Televisions
  • Printers

What different types of memory card are there?

xD Card

These cards are designed exclusively for compatibility with Fuji and Olympus digital cameras and are extremely popular with 20% market coverage in 2005

With a weight of 2g, the xD-Picture Card™ is one of the smallest forms of any digital memory card, making it exceptionally portable and convenient.

  • Size:20x25x1.7mm (HxWxD).
  • Suitable for:Digital cameras from Fujifilm and Olympus.

SecureDigital (SD) Card

The Secure Digital (SD) card is the most popular type of memory card on the market boasting 45% market coverage when split by format . Its small size, large capacity and robust design has made it common in everything from cameras to MP3 players. The cards name derives from the fact that it features a built-in-write protection switch to help prevent accidental loss of data.

  • Size:32x24x2.1mm (HxWxD)
  • Suitable for:Digital cameras, PDAs Mobile phones, Camcorders, MP3 players, Televisions

MiniSD Card

Mini Secure Digital is used in a number of mobile phones and is just 38% of the size of normal SD card. You can also buy an adaptor for the devices, which means it will fit all SD devices. This means that consumers can buy one card and use it their Phone and Digital camera and transfer the images or file directly to their PDA or laptop via a reader or SD slot.

Smaller dealers who do not have the room to stock all of these new lines may prefer to stock this card to cover both formats.

  • Size:21x20x1.4mm (HxWxD)
  • Suitable for:Mobile phones

MicroSD Card

The MicroSD is a further advancement on the MiniSD, and as its name suggests, is smaller and more compact than its counterpart and so is particularly well suited to the very latest models of mobile phones.

  • Suitable for:Mobile phones

CompactFlash Card

CompactFlash remains one of the most popular types of memory cards with 20% market coverage out of all of the types of memory card.

Q: What do the "times" figures (eg. x8, x40) mean on the card?

A:These figures denote the card's speed of information writing and reading.

  • Size:36.4x42.8x3.3mm for Type I (HxWxD) and 36.4x42.8x5mm for Type II (HxWxD)
  • Suitable for:Digital cameras, PDA’s, MP3’s

MultiMedia (MMC) Card

MultiMediaCards are ideal for use in portable devices like digital audio players, digital cameras, and PDAs. In addition to its distinct size advantage over other removable memory, the MultiMediaCard's low power draw makes it highly suitable for battery-powered mobile applications.

  • Size:24x32x1.4mm (HxWxD)
  • Suitable for:PDAs, Mobile phones, Camcorders, MP3 players, Laptops, Digital cameras

MMC Mobile Card

As the name suggests these small, dual-voltage, high capacity cards are designed for mobile phones and other portable devices that have limited space due to the smaller size of the devices.

  • Suitable for:Mobile phones

Memory Sticks

Memory sticks can be found in Sony’s range of consumer electronic devices. There are anumber of different memory sticks to suit a different range of devices, these include the memory stick pro, the memory stick duo, and the memory stick duo pro.

  • Size:Varies depending on type of memory stick
  • Suitable for:Sony/Sony Ericsson products such as mobile phones, Sony Playstation, PDAs and televisions.

USB Flash Drives

USB flash drives (also known as memory pens) are small, lightweight, removable data storage devices that are not dissimilar in use to the hard drive of a computer but are thumb-sized and so are extremely portable. They store a wide range of files and are compatible with computers that have USB ports (pretty much all computers these days!). They have superseded the floppy disc and are reusable, meaning that you can add and delete data as required.

Did you know?

The UK trend for market growth for memory cards in 2005 was a staggering 70%* As the Digital Camera market continues to grow, and with the increasing number of consumer devices that require such memory cards, it would appear that such market trends will continue into, and beyond, 2006. (*growth in unit volumes, source Gfk).

Helpful Hint!

The specifications on digital cameras are improving all the time with more megapixels and a higher resolution of images. With this improved quality comes a larger file size which takes up more space on a memory card and so reduces the number of files that you can fit onto them. Because of this consumers are increasingly buying memory cards with a larger storage capacity

Did you know?

Demand for mobile media cards is set to rocket to a value of over £10bn worldwide by 2007 (Source GFK 2006)

If your digital
camera resolution is		 We recommend this speed
(1X=150KB-per-second
sustained write speed)		 And at least this capacity
4 megapixels or less Speed doesn't matter 128MB
5 megapixels 32X to 50X 256MB
6 megapixels 40X to 60X 256MB
7 megapixels 50X to 80X 512MB
8 megapixels Fastest possible 512MB
9 megapixels Fastest possible 1GB
10 megapixels Fastest possible 4GB
More than 10 megapixels Fastest possible Largest possible

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