6th September 2017

400GB microSD card announced

SanDisk has just unveiled a 400 gigabyte (GB) microSD card, which it claims is the world's highest capacity.

SanDisk, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation, has announced the launch of its 400GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, which it claims to be the world's highest-capacity microSD card. Just two years after introducing its record-breaking 200GB microSD card, SanDisk has doubled the capacity within the same tiny form factor.

"Mobile devices have become the epicentre of our lives, and consumers are now accustomed to using their smartphones for anything from entertainment to business. We are collecting and sharing massive amounts of data on smartphones, drones, tablets, PCs, laptops and more. We anticipate that storage needs will only continue to grow as people continue to expect more sophisticated features on their devices and desire higher quality content," said Jeff Janukowicz, vice president of research. "We estimate that mobile device users worldwide will install over 150 billion applications alone this year, which require a ton of memory on all of our favourite devices."

SanDisk has achieved this capacity breakthrough by leveraging its proprietary memory technology and design and production processes that allow for more bits per die.

"We continue to push technology boundaries and transform the way consumers use their mobile devices," said Sven Rathjen, vice president of product marketing at Western Digital. "By focusing on achieving new technology milestones, we enable consumers to keep up with their mobile-centric lifestyles with storage solutions they trust."

The new card holds up to 40 hours of Full HD video and offers transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s, meaning it can move up to 1,200 photos per minute. Additionally, it meets the A1 App Performance Class specification, which means that the card can load apps faster.

Storage capacities of SD and microSD cards are an excellent example of the exponential growth seen in many forms of information technology in recent years and decades. On current trends, it appears likely that the first 1TB microSD card will arrive by around 2020-21.

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