Sony Ericsson ditching Memory Stick Micro cards in favor of MicroSD
By Donald Melanson 
posted June 1st 2009 5:46PM
posted June 1st 2009 5:46PM
Sony Ericsson already tipped its hand by including nothing but plain old microSD in its recently announced Satio, Yari and Aino phones (not to mention the K850 even further back), but it looks like TrustedReviews has now gotten the official word straight from the source: SE is dropping Sony's own Memory Stick Micro format (or M2) in favor of the decidedly more standard microSD. While it's not clear if that'll be a clean break from here on out or not, Sony Ericsson Global Marketing Director Fortuné Alexander did say that the company is "moving in that direction," and at least a few more still unannounced handsets have apparently already made the switch. Next thing you know Sony will be dumping UMD. Oh wait.
The various companies will compete each other lower. MemorySticks were expensive for quite awhile because fewer companies were allowed to produce them. SD is cheap as hell because everyone and their grandma not only makes them, but uses them.
No, this one is more like the RAM market.
My grandma probably wouldn't use a microSD card in the intended fasion. Perhaps with a glass of water and spoonful of sugar.
Sony. The one and only.
"Sony. The Son and ony" sounds somehow better.
any variation of the proprietary memory stick sucks. sometimes it's my deciding factor *against* a product versus a non-sony one with an sd slot. no one wants to buy media cards that only works on a limited set of devices versus one that works on a wide variety.
stating the obvious here. spelling it out for sony: sd/sdhc and other media storage formats are more versatile & practical regardless of manufacturer or device. haven't you guys figured that out yet? or are you too stubborn to change?
There is nothing less proprietary about SD. The SD association are complete jerks about owning their standard. SD is just a more widely adopted proprietary standard.
For example:
http://www.sd-3c.com/
And don't forget the royalty report form. The one you can't even SEE until the give you the password.
both are proprietary but my usage of that single word hints at how much better a generally accepted standard would be if it was open source without digressing off topic. sd is the lesser of two evils due to its widespread use.
granted memory stick has a better website:
https://www.memorystick.org/eng/e-index.html
in detail, perhaps my usage of the word proprietary should have been more accurately and specifically replaced by a more convoluted phrase that highlights sd's quasi-proprietary one bit protocol, the proprietary exfat format-able media, the royalty license fees, the tiresome manufacturer/developer requirements and inherent politics and legalities, while emphasizing the ubiquitous nature of sd media versus the memory stick.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card
again, i see that spiraling off topic into uninteresting politics and legalities.
the financial numbers have been staring at them during this time. it's no open source, but the ubiquitous practicalities of sd over memory stick are almost unequivocable.
i don't know why, but garmin thinks it's not proprietary; and the reasons why are unclear:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/faqs/faq.jsp?faq=160
bottom line: sd is far more widely used and practical.
Well, there is always MMC... that is a more open standard, devices using MMC are license and royalty free (but cards are not,) and it's forward compatible with SD. (But, there's no MMC-HD.)
Time to buy Sandisk stock....gonna get some more business from sony.
Sandisk has been making Memory Sticks and its variants for years. In fact all my Duo cards for my are Sandisk brand.
*for my PSP
Partay!!!!
Sony is a fully paid up member of the SD association and has been moving its memory line to merge with SD.
Can't Engadget do some research ?
Good news, they've also dropped (or added SD support) memory stick out of their DSLR cameras, no UMD on new playstation go, their mp3 players have drag and drop support, and now the phones seem to be moving forwards toward SD cards.
Guess Stinger was right when he said they are listening to customers. Well done, hope they realized how bad proprietary anything is crap.
I couldn't care less about proprietary vs. non-proprietary. All I know is that
-SD variants are almost an order of magnitude cheaper at large sizes;
-I have many gadgets in my life that already use SD variants.
Please understand that when people use the word 'proprietary' they are referring to a cluster of properties that includes number of manufacturers, number of interoperable devices, and price.
Yes, it's getting the word wrong. It doesn't mean the sentiment is wrong.
It used to be truly proprietary. You could only buy Sony memory sticks. But you've been able to buy them from Lexar, SanDisk, etc. for quite some time now. And the price difference is closer to 2X than 10X (an order of magnitude) (pricegrabber says $75 for Sandisk Memory Stick Micro 16GB, $52 for Kingston Micro SDHC), unless you are buying low quality SD. And I don't recommend buying low quality SD.
I'd rather use SD, but microSD ain't exactly cheap either and with SD in the middle of three transitions (physical shape SD->microSD, and protocol changes SD->SDHC and SDHC->SDXC), the SD market is a wreck right now. It's in the worst shape it's been in that I can remember.
With Stringer's comments of a few weeks ago (about how they could have beat Apple if they had been more open), it's baffling to me that the PSP Go! doesn't use a combo slot like on the K850i.
I wish everything would just use SDHC cards already. Its not like they are that much larger than the Micros.
Yeah, and oddly enough the new Alpha DSLR bodies ditch Compact Flash and integrate both MSPDuo and SDHC. Soo, i assume this signals a transition for sony. Can SDHC pocket cams be next?
Lord knows it's not good to do anything that limits your sales, their reps aren't what they used to be, and nobody's gonna force money out of anyone's wallets thesedays anyway.
That's the beginning of them understanding that they have to conform to compete!
YES! FINALLY!
This is good. Although I LOVE memory stick for the fact that it is truly backwards compatible, it just doesn't justify the unusually high price.
Sony.......Bony?
this is better than a pony.
And now to ditch their clunky prong-port that requires an even clunkier adapter to use 3.5mm handsfrees...
Is... Is Sony... getting it?
Apparently so. Now hopefully this will put more pressure on Olympus.
Olympus has moved to microSDHC already. Their cameras now support xD and micrSDHC
Yes, "microSDHC". While this format makes sense for phones, it seems rather inadequate for a camera. If Olympus really wants to show more than halfhearted support a full size slot should be made available.
About f*in time.
Still, too late to the party.
You wonder if Sony has any inkling that vast swaths of the population loathe the memory stick format, and steer well away from Sony products for that one reason alone.
Years ago I had a P31 and choked on having to pay 2x to 3x for MS over SD cards. Then there was the "oh we are switching to MS PRO from MS so you can't use your old cards on a new camera" bit. I left Sony digicams in disgust, and never looked back.
If they'd actually been price comparable, or clearly been higher speed, fine, but it felt like a Sony tax pure and simple.
I am pleasantly surprised Sony.
Wholy crap! I think I just saw a pig flying.