Sandisk will also produce MS Pro!!!

[MGPDA]

from clieplanet.com:

"Good news on the Memory Stick front- SanDisk has announced that it will be producing MS Pros in 256 MB, 512 MB and 1 GB capacities. They made their announcement at CES 2003 and it can only be useful in driving the prices down to have 2 mahunfacturers out there. "

[johnfox]

It will still take quite a while for the price to come down to a reasonable level. Prices come down as sales become greater thus recouping some of thier investment through volume, but at the prices listed and the actual need for much beyond maybe 512......sales will be slow. On the other hand, slow sales, high inventory, someone wakes up @ sony or sandisk and we may get what we want.

[Derango]

Still...we can only hope that the Sandisk 1GB stick isn't going to be $800 :)

[johnfox]

Amen!

[Pyogenes]

That was originally announced in late 2001 ;)

When SanDisk agreed to help develop the new memory sticks, they also got the rights to produce and market them. That was the same agreement that had them selling the flash memory to Sony who made the sticks that SanDisk rebranded as their own product.

What I think should be interesting is seeing how this affects SD cards since SanDisk was one of the original developers of the SD format. I don't think they've released a new SD card in some time so their budget towards SD manufacturing may be going towards MS Pro production instead which could drive down the prices faster. Guess we'll see in a few months

[ClieMarty]

we'll i just pray that not too many folks will start to pay $800 for the 1gb question. if people are willing to pay that, prices will stay high at first.

but i truly hope that sony will face their own x-box desaster with the new memstick: advanced technology with lots of options but without lots of devices supporting the higher speed and people not wanting to spend significantly more than for a 1gb cf.

[Pyogenes]

Originally posted by ClieMarty
we'll i just pray that not too many folks will start to pay $800 for the 1gb question. if people are willing to pay that, prices will stay high at first.

but i truly hope that sony will face their own x-box desaster with the new memstick: advanced technology with lots of options but without lots of devices supporting the higher speed and people not wanting to spend significantly more than for a 1gb cf.

That's not how business works - High introductory prices exist to offset the cost of R&D and initial costs of production. Eventually economies of scale will kick and and cost to produce will decline enough to allow them to drop their prices to increase demand. If people buy a lot of memory sticks at $800, it actually allows them to move the price down sooner to capture the larger market that cannot afford the higher prices. Sony didn't get where they are today by not understanding economics.

I'm not sure how the comparison to X-Box even makes sense. Microsoft is dependent on 3rd parties to create games for them which create demand for the console. Sony on the other hand manufactures the majority of memory stick devices and can easily create the demand by introducing new products. I think it's pretty safe to say that by the end of this year all new products utilizing Memory Stick technology will be compatible with either the Pro or Duo formats.