1GB write-once SanDisk memory cards to cost $5.99?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Nov 20th 2007 6:36AM
posted Nov 20th 2007 6:36AM
Remember how Sandisk was flirting with read-only, cheap-archival storage based on their new "3D memory' back in February? Well, it sounds like they're about to commit. We just received a tip from a SanDisk customer who took a survey about a proposed write-once memory card. The most interesting new piece of information is the price: a 400 photo, 1GB write-once card for a proposed $5.99 as described by our tipster. We can't vouch for his claims -- nevertheless, what he says is consistent with what we've heard and certainly makes sense. We'll break it down for you as we received it: - The new "memory cards (memory stick)" will be widely available in food, drug, camera, and convenience stores (we already knew that Wal-Mart and Walgreens were involved)
- The new format fits your existing camera
- Large enough to store at least 100 photos per card (does that mean 256MB cards for $2.00 or less?)
- Write-once technology stores your pictures safely for over 100 years (check)
- Less expensive than standard re-writeable memory cards (duh)
[Thanks, Chris G]
I'm not really sure i understand the concept.. so my choices are buy a single use card with a 1GB capacity for $6, or buy a 1GB card which i can use pretty much indefinately for nearer to ten dollars, offloading data onto a hard drive and much cheaper CDs / DVDs for backup (where its more useful anyway)?
What's the target market? It isn't like SD cards are ruinously expensive anyway. It just seems like another way to build clutter and waste materials...
wut he said.. ^ This sounds dumb. And how much money did they waste developing the tech to write "once"?
The point of write-once is for archival storage, though if it's magnetic, you'd still have to take care of the media. 1GB in the form factor of a postage stamp (if they branch off of SD-card) is a far cry from a 700MB optical CD that has a far shorter shelf life than originally thought or designed for. Even 5 of these is smaller than a 4.7GB single layer DVD -- it's only when you get to a 9GB dual layer DVD or larger (Blu-Ray & HD-DVD, et al) that the data density turns around in optical's favor.
I would guess the target market are people who don't have enough memory with them on a longer vacation. Seems a bit odd to think this is even worth it, but what do I know.
Environmentally, I can't imagine its a good idea....
Tony,
DVD-r's can be had for 27 cents a disc. What's the advantage again?
I imagine those camera makers would like this. Instead of a useless tiny card (or onboard store) they can bundle in a one way card. Well actually I imagine camera retailers would like this. I could totally see this becoming a requirement to sell a camera in a big box store. Kind of like how printers don't have usb cables so the stores can sell you them (at massive markup).
How long before there comes a new format (using the same technology) for distributing content? Think about this: if they make a 64GB write once flash card - in whatever form that might be - and load a hi-def movie on it, this could be the beginning of the end of HD-DVD/Blu Ray or any other optical media. Mark my words on that...
To top it off, think about the archival benefits for large corporations that still use tape based storage. Better yet, think how much music stores could save on shipment/stocking of music if it was all in a smaller form factor (granted, you still need the booklets to fit somehow).
Possibilities with this tech is endless, and also a great for photographers like myself who could just run into a supermarket and buy new "film", load it. For sure, you might be able to buy a cheap CF/SD card, but for those of us that got burnt with cheap storage and corrupt files as a result this seems like an ideal solution.
This tech will come soon, and I'm looking forward to it :D
You're dead on. Heck, you can pick up a $5.49 1 GB rewritable SD card from newegg already...
And to add another thing, the write once flash memory could be embedded into a disposable digital camera, so you could possibly walk into a supermarket and buy a 5mpx digital camera with 100 shots, waste it, and drop it off to your lab where I'm sure there will be a method of extracting data, printing and burning onto a cd and recycling the camera.
While we're at it, let's put non-rechargeable batteries in cameras too.
But seriously, read/write SD cards are already pretty close to six bucks (http://www.meritline.com/ridata-1gb-sd-card.html) so what's the point?
Well, If it's cheaper from the main maker, woudn't you get it cheaper else where like you're showing excpect with read/write cards.
$5.99 would be "retail" price, so you'd bound to find it for less at a discounter like Meritline. Doing a quick Google search, Pacific Geek sells your same Ridata 1GB 60x "Lightning Series" (SDCR1G-LIG) for $19.99 and it retails for $35.99 according to the manufacturer.
This sounds extremely wasteful. The last thing we need is another technology device that will quickly find its way to landfill. Isn't part of beauty of digital photography being able to delete those photos you don't like on demand?
Don't limit the discussion to photography.
Think evidence (lawsuits, etc) and archives. I'd love to be able to take 1GB snapshots of my critical data at home a couple times a month and be able to safely store them someplace small, for example.
Plastic media (CDs, DVDs, etc) do not last as long as everyone thinks they do, and can be sensitive to light and other factors, putting your data at risk.
Also, from a legal perspective, being able to prove (assuming this can be done with the media in question) that what is stored on there is the original, unaltered data would be a huge plus.
For example, think crime scene photography. What is better, claiming that the pictures showing some evidence haven't been altered, or being able to prove they haven't been altered because the storage media is write-once?
I agree, this is a recipe for e-waste. Don't like those photos any more? trash the card and buy a new one! the legal analysis doesn't hold up by the way because CD-Rs are read-only as well but the data can be doctored before its written.
Take photo, alter it, write it to another write-once card. Doesn't help proving anything...
All DSLR producers that I'm aware of offer forensic photography kits which watermark the images and checksum the images at production such that you can authoritatively sign off on the photo's as being unaltered. These cards would in theory save the cost of the police departments having to purchase these kits (~$150 on average). But I wager everyone is already using these kits except for maybe very small police departments which are still using film.
This is like a deja-vu.
Just a few days back, I was thinking of doing some business shooting pictures of tourists and charging them for it. My idea was to record on cheap but reliable memory cards, and then give the card to the customer.
This would be perfect for this type of job.
Are there many tourists who don't bring cameras on vacation?
Disposable member cards...hmmmm...fill one up, toss it out and buy another one...could be cool.
I know you're thinking I missed a step (copying them to your PC), but I really haven't. Nobody looks at all these pics we take anyway, so why bother doing that part?
If this is actually cheaper to produce than current re-writeable solid state media does it have a chance of eventually replacing optical read-only formats?
Getting films and music on an read-only SD card rather than some variation on a CD would be sweet.
That actually sounds like a good idea. I really really really despise optical media. Can they get the cost down enough though?
Now that actually makes more sense than the digital camera use.
Jumping on the bandwagon here. Brilliant idea. Even at 1GB, it's over 42% higher-capacity than a standard CD, and FAR smaller. If you could buy albums on 1GB write-once SD cards, then you'll probably see a significant boost in the sales of MP3 players with SD slots (not to mention the plethora of other benefits).
What will then be the price of your Music?
A plastic CD cost penny! More profit! Let say it cost 0.20$ to "burn" a music CD. You sell it 9.99$ you make more money for the artist and all the other crap.
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/entertainment/0101/cd.price/frameset.exclude.html
A SD card = less money = Not interesting!
A SD card could cost around 3$ for the chip
That does not make any sence for the music industry. Not for the moment.
Remember they all want CASH! Nothing more!
You're all missing the big problem with music on this thing. Its data that can be written once... What about the drm? Would you still be able to rip the music off for your iPod or Zune? I doubt it. So what? now we need another friggin player to handle the sd media? Nope.. sorry. Digital downloads are cheaper, easier, and the format already works. This is a bad idea all the way around.
This seems to me like it would need device support, FAT is not a write-once filesystem.
I'm wondering about the same thing. Maybe they have a few rewritable KB/MB there just to hold FAT?
Or maybe it's for the people that always keep the pictures on thier card couse they don't trust their puter
Well, that's why SD cards have a write protect switch (kinda like floppies do). For $6 I'd much rather buy a 5 pack of double layer dvd-r's! If I did need a memory card, like someone mentioned above, then I can buy a r/w card for about the same money. Flash memory came down in price a lot. You can buy 2GB flash drives in walmart for around $10 and they still make some money. This card is hugely overpriced for that it offers. If it was a $1 or maybe $2 then it'd make more sense but at $6, heck no.
This is brilliant news! Smaller than a CD, with greater capacity, will produce less heat and costs just a little bit more. I've been waiting for this sort of thing for ages.
And it only costs 5,000% more!
Hmm, not here :P
1GB write-once mem card costs you 6$..
While 1GB SD card costs you only 10$ with the capability to sustain up to 1 million times of write.
WTF....?????????????????
You would be surpised at the number of people who have digital camras, who don't have a computer or don't know how to put it on there computer. They just use a card till it's full, and then get a new one.
But at least they know how to erase pictures. The delete option on the digital camera would be useless. Those sound like the same people who take 40 pictures on the floor or their hand.
Actually, they don't know how to erase the pictures. These cards sound perfect for this group, as they are usually drawn to the cheapest option and will never miss the features that were available for a few dollars more.
It is a shame about the digital waste though.
Wait, so someone tells a completely uncorroborated story about taking a survey for SanDisk, and it gets reported?
Wow, the number of smarty pants around this site seems to only increase. Before trashing a product,
think about when you are at Disney World, you filled up both of your trusty rewritable 2GB SD cards,
and did not bring a computer to the week long vacation. What do you do? Just jump to the nearest convenience store (there are few inside Disney World and their prices are normal), and get a gig for $6. It saves you time going though your cards deleting photos you "think" you don't want and risk deleting something you wanted in the process.
That is flawed argument,why would't you buy a re-writable card from Disney World. That way it would have more use, or if you don't need it, sell it on.
Cause it's cheaper? While you can find 1GB cards on-sale for around $10,
that's not the price you pay at the gas station or the nearest Drugs store,
and you don't even know if they are going to carry a SD card at all.
However, with this new write once card, the biggest advantage is the assurance that you
can pretty much find it in any store even if that kind of store don't usually carry any kind of SD cards, or may carry 128MB card from 4 years ago for $25.
In summary, this new card is promising you the following 2 advantages that we do not have right now with rewritable cards.
1. $6 for 1GB at anytime, no need to wait for sale.
2. Available almost anywhere, no need to order online and wait for UPS, just drive to the gas station and pick one up, perfect for when you are away from home.
Another great use I can think of is for Digital photo-frame that you might giveaway to grandparents that do not have computer. You throw around 1000 photos (re-size since they don't need to be 10 mega-pixel) on a $6 card and send it away. When the pictures get old just send them another one with 41 cents 1st class mail and they just have to swap the card.
For one thing, at Disney world disposable cameras cost around $10-15 (at least they were that much 3 years ago), so I am willing to bet they would charge about $20-30 minimum for something like this.
If you dont have a laptop, there are external hard drives that can copy data off SD cards for around $80, and you get one heck of a lot more storage.
re-read my post, there are convenience stores inside Disney world selling items at regular price.
Also Disney World was just an example, you should be able to buy it anywhere.
The $80 device might be a great idea but trying buying that when you are on your vacation, where are you going to find it?
Also if you are going to buy $80 device just for that you could buy 2 4 GB cards at $40 each before your trip
Again, the advantage of this is that you can buy it anywhere for cheap.
Of course I'm assuming that SandDisk keeps its promise and makes it available anywhere for $6.
I agree completely.
Well you defeat your own argument. These well priced stores selling the ROSD for $6 would likely also be selling a standard RWSD for $10, they wouldn't see a difference between the two products.
No, I did not, they are selling 128MB cards for $25 because that was the retail when they got the stock 4 years ago and they don't know any better.
For this new card, the retail is $5.99.
Think before you post because you might just make fool of yourself :)
next it will be write once hard drives! this is madness!
This is .. SPARTA!
Madness? This is.. oh nevermind, that movie is really old now :'(.
I agree with someone above that said selling multi media on these would be a good idea, but they would have to bump it to more like 8 gb for HD content and then it might get cost prohibitive.
will it need a juke box
Why does the photo suck?
Why don’t they just drop the artificially inflated price of solid memory to $6 for 1Gig re-writable and just forget the world of write-once that belongs back in history. Why isn’t the monopolies commission doing something about solid memory prices anyway, there obviously getting their heads together and price fixing.
I think some of you could be missing the point.
I like the idea. Lets say you are out on vacation. You brought your camera and all the rewritable cards you have. You fill them up but still have a few days left for vacation and no way to offload them. Non-nerds leave their computers at home.
You have three options. 1. not take pictures of your trip into Disney World. 2. Head to a brick and mortar store and buy an over priced rewritable card. 3. Head to a brick and mortar store and buy a cheaper write once card.
People would probably choose #3. You don't have the ability to order online. You can't wait. You need it now.
My point exactly posted about 32 minutes before.
Newegg has 1GB (write as much as you want) SD cards for $14.00 +S&H.
So after 3 memory W/O(write once) cards, you've already wasted your money.
Might be cool for kids cameras or instead of a disposable camera, disposable card.
Seems somewhat impractical to me, but has potential.
This ridiculous. The news is not a pack of 50 1GB for 6 dollars. Its one freaking write ounce for 6 dollars. ONE card. I checked amazon, and the 1 GB read/write cards cost less than that. I don't know why everyone is so excited about.
I can see the garbage dumps filling with ever more non-biodegradeable plastic from our disposable country. First it was plastic within plastic for packaging and now throwaway SD cards. Fickin' fantastic and frickin' unnecessary.
Millions of years ago Wood wasn't degradable, that is why we have coal and oil, over the years bacteria evolved to digest wood, the same will happen for plastc.
In the future plastic may degrade into some icredibly useful material called QuadTanium which forms a cure for all known illnesses.
I can see the benefits of using a write-once technology like this for archival purposes but $5.99 for 1GB when I can buy at least 2 or 3 backup DVD'Rs for that price doesn't cut it with me.
If they can make these things $3.99 - I'll be sold. For those of us who don't just use mass storage drives for downloading movies and music this type of thing is useful for storing your important data in a compact form.
I do have to mirror some of the above comments though...surely the lock on existing SD cards is more than enough.
No, the lock really isn't.
That doesn't render the card unwriteable; it just signals a compatible device that this card is not to be written to. Many devices don't have a switch there to detect the sliders position at all, or have software overrides. At best, you're trusting a card reader's firmware not to trash your data.
These are not rewritable, so they can't be rewritten. Much better, if you want to make sure something doesn't get trashed.
No, the lock really isn't.
That doesn't render the card unwriteable; it just signals a compatible device that this card is not to be written to. Many devices don't have a switch there to detect the sliders position at all, or have software overrides. At best, you're trusting a card reader's firmware not to trash your data.
These are not rewritable, so they can't be rewritten. Much better, if you want to make sure something doesn't get trashed.
No, the lock really isn't.
That doesn't render the card unwriteable; it just signals a compatible device that this card is not to be written to. Many devices don't have a switch there to detect the sliders position at all, or have software overrides. At best, you're trusting a card reader's firmware not to trash your data.
These are not rewritable, so they can't be rewritten. Much better, if you want to make sure something doesn't get trashed.
No, the lock really isn't.
That doesn't render the card unwriteable; it just signals a compatible device that this card is not to be written to. Many devices don't have a switch there to detect the sliders position at all, or have software overrides. At best, you're trusting a card reader's firmware not to trash your data.
These are not rewritable, so they can't be rewritten. Much better, if you want to make sure something doesn't get trashed.
No, the lock really isn't.
That doesn't render the card unwriteable; it just signals a compatible device that this card is not to be written to. Many devices don't have a switch there to detect the sliders position at all, or have software overrides. At best, you're trusting a card reader's firmware not to trash your data.
These are not rewritable, so they can't be rewritten. Much better, if you want to make sure something doesn't get trashed.
No, the lock really isn't.
That doesn't render the card unwriteable; it just signals a compatible device that this card is not to be written to. Many devices don't have a switch there to detect the sliders position at all, or have software overrides. At best, you're trusting a card reader's firmware not to trash your data.
These are not rewritable, so they can't be rewritten. Much better, if you want to make sure something doesn't get trashed.
Oh no!
Oops, browser went nuts. Terribly sorry.
Write-once media is a big business. This sort of thing could replace game discs. Imagine how many games a computer store could hold if all the games were write-once card media instead of the comparatively large and fragile CD's/DVD's.
I wonder if these could be used (ala bootable converter) as a 1 gig embedded drive...
A write once memory card could be very handy in a computer you don't want anyone messing with...
This is stupid, we will probably see these cards in the dollar store next year in a 3 pack.
That's stupid? That sounds great to me.
I mean it should be a given by now that most posters in here are incredibly myopic, but regardless, sandisk doesn't REALLY want think single-use cards in your camera is an amazing innovation. They are just trying to justify more R&D money to put into this sort of memory to the suits so they can get closer to there actually goal, beating optical memory on all fronts. Just remember who to thank when we live in an optical-free (No more scratched disks ZOMGZ@!!) society: lame, polluting, lazy consumers buying disposable digital photography.
small, fast, cheap, lower-power, longer life -- if it delivers I'd be interested.
They'd probably have to do better than 1gb though.
of course, optical was touted as an archival format - and it clearly isn't. if these things don't keep for a couple generations at least as well as your average shoebox full of negatives, I don't really see the point.
it's about the same price as FILM. Does film store any better? Do you get more images with film? And yes, some people still use film. When looked at that way, the price is in line with film and you get many more pictures. No processing costs and wait time. The only down side is they are small enough that they can be easily lost.
It seems to me this could be very confusing to non nerds who are just looking for a memory card. They see that the write once is cheaper, so they go for that, only to figure out later that they can only use it once.
Why would you throw away one of these cards with all your pictures/data on it? Kinda like pitching the negatives after have some film developed. Even if you did, it would still be less plastic in a land fill than a CD.
Only hope for this one is a WAY lower price.
It seems to me this could be very confusing to non nerds who are just looking for a memory card. They see that the write once is cheaper, so they go for that, only to figure out later that they can only use it once. This would be a problem especially if the packaging is similar.
I guess you cannot delete that photo you just accidentally took of your foot...
I understand their target market (my parents), but this will just confuse them more. I still cannot get my step-father to stop going to Walgreens and spending an outrageous amount of cash to have his photos put on a CD when he has a perfectly capable computer at home that has a CD burner. Maybe MS Bob wasn't such a bad idea after all...
this sounds like a good idea for passing out digital music without using the costlier thumb/flash drives.
i just don't think you need more than 64/128 MBs for handing out CDs
otherwise yea, there's no reason not to pay $10 or $15 to order a regular SD card
wow, $6 for something you stick in your camera and store pictures on, but once it's full you need to buy a new one. that sounds familiar
oh yeah, that's what film cameras were like. remember what a revolution digital was over film? why are we moving backwards?
Nice idea, but it should be comparible to a CD-R in price, only 10x lower in price because I said so and no one will go for this anyway.
2bux a pieace, and maybe it will work. If not less... 3 for $10.
How about you spend $0.25 more (+SH) and get OEM Read/Write 1GB cards from the same manufacturer?
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?SCriteria=BA24221
Just a note: While optical media has typically been unreliable, there are longer lasting variations that can do a lot better. The Delkin(I think) Archival Gold DVDs go for under $2. These also have a good scratch coating on them. A good burn, of course, would still be needed, so use a good burner and maybe slow it down a notch.
Archival purposes??!?
Yeah. How's that box of archival 5-1/4 inch floppies working out for ya?
Why SD cards? There are more expensive to produce than say SM or xD cards.
Also write once cards for $6, my local corner shop (yes a convince store) sells 1Gb Re-writables for £2 to £3 (depending on make) (that's about $4-6), so that's _cheaper_.
an other point:
Have you heard of card printers, churning out flash-based cards for 40p/card (~80 cents).
SM is dead and sucked anyway, because the format was ill-defined and so new bigger cards almost never worked in older cameras.
xD? WTF xD? A marginal format at best, you'd be closer to the mark saying Memory Stick! On pricegrabber a 1GB SD card is $9. A 1GB MS Pro Duo is $16 and a 1GB xD card is $19.
There are 442 SD card types for sale on there(plus 56 MMC, which are compatible), 210 Memory Stick (of which only 44 are Memory Stick Pro Duo or Duo) and 67 xD cards and 10 SmartMedia.
Fair enough, in cameras.
I was just saying as people have said they would use it as a form of backup, where the format is practically irrelevant providing the equipment to write to it is cheep enough.
I wasn't very clear
this is quite possibly the most rediculous idea ever.
http://www.indepmusic.com
this would be great for my mom, who still can't quite figure out how to upload images without losing some.
Her camera is old (2 mega pixel) so one of these cards would last her a year!
I think I'd rather get a album on SD rather than CD (Full sampling rate).
Not a good price, though... MWave has 1 GB SD cards for $6.25 each... And those are read/write.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/skusearch.hmx?SCriteria=BA24221&CartID=done&nextloc=
I'm not against write-once cards, but this isn't nearly cheap enough.
I got a 2GB 60X SD card for $13. That's the same price/GB as this.
I don't get it. I thought the whole point with photography going digital was to not deal with film anymore which by the way is write-once!
Being able to erase photos and re-take is one of the key benefit of using a digital camera. This totally negates it. While they are at it, why don't they encrypt the data so only an "authorized dealer" can unlock the photos so you have to send the mem-card in to get pictures unlocked when you get home.
I'll stick with my generic pqi 1gb sd cards from ebay that I pay 10$ for. That are not write-once
These are perfect for my mother-in-law. She just keeps buying more SD cards because she is terrified of deleting anything (she believes deleting it from the card will delete it from the computer).
With these she can keep doing what she's always done and save a few $$ in the process.
This would be perfect for grandma's digital photo frame!!! Imagine how many resized photos to 1024x768 (or whatever the max res of the photo frame is) you could fit onto this 1GB card. All you need to do is to send her a new card every few months!
There also devloping a Write Once hard drive , Microsoft is thinking about puting Vista on it and the installing it on New Computers.
That way you stuck with that crap for life.
Somewhere out there an environmentalist is crying.
Write-once cards? Sounds like a waste to me. Just like disposable cameras.
It's a first product of a new type. Yes, it costs too much $/GB now, but by the time 32 GB comes out, it should be substantially cheaper than RW SDs, and density through the roof vs. DVDs. That's when it's useful.
Of course, the first version being too expensive, the project couild get cancelled due to poor sales. Let's hope that doesn't happen.