Strategy Analytics: MicroSD Eclipses Rivals in Cellphone Memory Card Format War; One in Four Cellphones Sold in 2006 Will Have a Removable Memory Card Slot

Business Wire, March 27, 2006

BOSTON -- The latest report from the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service, "MicroSD Dominating Demand in Slotted Phones," highlights the rapid adoption of small format removable memory cards in cellphones and details the 160 percent growth in global slotted phone sales between 2004 and 2005.

Over the next five years, sales of slotted phones--cellphones with a removable memory card slot--are expected to grow at an annual average rate of 52 percent, with almost three-quarters of all new phones sold in 2010 likely to include a slot. Meanwhile, sales of memory cards for cellphones are expected to grow at a rate of 53 percent over the next five years, reaching almost 1.1 billion cards by 2010.

According to Stuart Robinson, Director of the Handset Component Technologies service, "MicroSD has rapidly become the format of choice for new mobile phone designs, with design wins far exceeding those for MMCmicro and Sony's new micro-sized format, the M2. While the M2 will quickly replace the larger Memory Stick formats, it will remain a long way behind the microSD format and some way behind the MMCmicro format in cellphones."

Commenting on the trends in card capacity, Stephen Entwistle, Vice President of the company's Strategic Technologies Practice, added, "In 2005 the average capacity of memory cards sold for use in cellphones was 112MB per card. By 2010 we predict that this will have increased to around 1.6GB, equivalent to an annual average growth rate of over 70 percent."

The report provides detailed forecasts for each of the eleven card formats currently used in mobile phones, together with installed base estimates of phones and memory card sales by format in unit and revenue terms.

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