SanDisk Corporation has begun to sample 12-gigabyte (GB) microSDHC flash memory cards to major phone manufacturers for testing and evaluation.

The 12GB card represents a 50 per cent boost in card capacity from SanDisk’s industry-leading 8GB microSDHC cards, which are currently available worldwide, and highlights the growing popularity of mobile phones with storage-intensive features that include music players, digital cameras, video recording and playback and GPS capabilities.

“Mobile phones have become a key part of consumers’ lifestyles around the globe,” said senior vice-president and general manager of the Mobile Consumer Solutions division at SanDisk Jeff Kost.

“What many people tend to overlook is the important role that removable storage cards play in enabling the key features of these fully featured mobile phones. In fact, many people are not even aware that their phone has a card slot which is why SanDisk recently launched its Wake Up Your Phone campaign,” he added.

SanDisk has embarked on a ‘slot education’ programme to raise awareness of both the card slot included in the majority of new mobile phones available today and the benefits to the consumers who use it.

A 12GB microSDHC is ideal for storing large quantities of music, photos and video. For example, it will be able to store a combination of 1,500 songs , 3,600 photos  and 24.5 hours of video.

SDHC is the designation for any SD or SD-based card that is larger than 2GB and adheres to the new SD 2.00 specification required for cards and hosts to support 4GB to 32GB capacities.

The specification was developed by the SD Association, an industry standards board, which has also created three classes to define minimum sustained data transfer speed. These cards adhere to the SD Speed Class 4 Rating.

In addition to the microSDHC, SanDisk also offers a broad range of both embedded and removable storage solutions for mobile handset manufacturers and mobile network operators.

These include iNAND and mDOC embedded flash drives; microSD, miniSD removable flash cards; and SIM and MegaSIM cards.

SanDisk Corporation, the inventor and world’s largest supplier of flash storage cards, is a global leader in flash memory – from research, manufacturing and product design to consumer branding and retail distribution. SanDisk’s product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for computers. – TradeArabia News Service