14 DAY TRIAL // SanDisk announced today, during E3 IT event, that it has co-developed a red 4GB Memory Stick PRO format in collaboration with Sony for the latter's PSP portable gaming console.
As the PSP uses an Universal Media Disc (UMD) storage medium, which is not able to record or write, SanDisk's memory stick will compensate for these lacks, as it can store up to 64 hours of MP3 music tracks, 20 or more hours of movies/videos/film trailers, 12 hours of game saves, or 4,000 digital still images.
The suggested retail price for the 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo Game Card, which will be available next month on the worldwide market, is $219, other models being cheaper, like the 256 megabytes (MB) model at $34.99, 512MB - at $44.99, 1GB - at $59.99 and 2GB - at $109.99.
"The PSP has clearly become more than just a gaming device," said Wes Brewer, SanDisk's vice president of consumer products marketing. "Since there is no internal memory for the PSP, a Memory Stick PRO Duo flash card is the only way to store large amounts of entertainment and other files."
"Now that the PSP has been in the marketplace for over a year, many new services have sprung up to offer downloadable content such as movies, so the users are rapidly demanding higher capacity cards," Brewer added.
Last year, SanDisk announced its first 2GB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo Gaming cards at GC 2005, the largest gaming show in Europe.
The memory sticks become more and more popular in countries where the hand-held entertainment system was already introduced, as high-capacity memory cards were necessary to fully use PSP's multitude features, including the storage of video clips, digital music tracks, game data and digital still photos.