Samsung Develops 2GB Phone Memory Card

Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday it has developed a tiny, 2GB memory card for use in mobile phones, just three months after it announced a card with half of that capacity.

The 2GB MMCmicro card is about the size and shape of one key on a standard computer keyboard and just 1.1 millimeters (0.04 inches) thick. It can store as much as 12 hours of “mobile video,” Samsung said, without specifying a format.

It can also transmit data quickly. A user can download three hours of mobile video, for example, in less than two minutes, according to Samsung. The cards can read data at 10Mbps and write at 7Mbps, the Seoul-based company said.

Both the 2GB and 1GB cards are expected to become available later this year, Samsung said. There was no word yet on pricing.

The cards are based on MMCmicro, a format designed by Samsung that’s based on the Multimedia Card (MMC) standard. The MMC standard competes with Secure Digital cards. Many handset makers, including Samsung, make phones compatible with both card types.

Earlier this year, SanDisk announced a 1GB card based on its smallest memory card format, MicroSD.

Memory card developers are reducing the size of the cards and boosting their memory capabilities to accommodate for small cell phones and for the additional data services that cellular operators are offering.

-Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

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