Amid April slowdown, SanDisk rolls out mobile phone storage
SanDisk on Tuesday announced mobile phone storage cards available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB versions. The rub: SanDisk has already warned that business has slowed so it's unclear whether folks will buy premium storage for mobile phones.
At the JP Morgan technology conference Monday, SanDisk CEO Eli Harari said the company saw a slowdown in April sales due to a slowing economy, NAND pricing and potentially weak consumer electronic sales. Bottom line: Retail sales were soft. Harari also hinted that SanDisk may need some additional cost cuts to hit its operating margin targets.
With that backdrop, SanDisk has rolled out "best of breed premium cards" designed to "wake up" multimedia features on your phone. With additional memory and faster transfer rates, SanDisk is hoping that mobile customers will buy its cards for more computing power.
In a statement SanDisk noted:
For avid mobile phone videographers, events and experiences captured by the phone's video camera can be quickly and efficiently transferred to social media or video-sharing websites. For added value and convenience, the card is bundled with a MobileMate Micro Reader that plugs directly into a USB 2.0 port to assist in this quick transport and easy management of digital content.
SanDisk may be on to something. The 2GB card will run you $34.99 with the 4GB version at $59.99 and the 8GB one at $119.99. And the extra storage could come in handy for a person that wants to add some storage heft to his mobile phone. Here's what the SanDisk cards bring to the table:
Will you buy them?