1. Verbatim continuously expands the portfolio of flash cards. Where do you see the major growth at the moment?
Verbatim offers the whole range of established flash cards with all available capacities. All products reflect the high quality standards our customers expect from Verbatim. In general, the market for storage media is a fast moving market. Especially in the professional user-segment we notice a growing trend towards flash cards for digital cameras, mobile phones, mp3 players and computer gaming. Besides the most current flash cards such as SD and miniSD we register a major growth with the smallest format micoSD.

2. How important is the market of smartphones? Do the raising sales figures for smartphones increase the demand for MMC mobile, MiniSD and microSD cards?
Smartphones combine mobile office features and data communication with further functions such as camera, mp3 player and navigation devices. This makes higher storage capacity necessary which flash cards perfectly cover. Since mobile phones as communicational all-rounders are still further promoted, we also expect an increasing need for flash memory cards. After all, flash storage media offer very high transfer rates but at the same time low power consumption. This is especially important for mobile devices. Independent sources as “Understanding & Solutions” expect 55 percent of the flash memory card usage to derive from mobile telephony by 2008. Already in 2006 more flash cards had been sold for mobile telephones than for digital cameras. The highest demand we register for micoSD since this format is being supported by the big mobile phone companies such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and LG. Which format will be established as standard will depend on the guidelines and product strategies of these companies.

3. What are the special requirements for flash cards used in the 3G market?
The 3G market is characterised by services and applications which are downloaded directly from the internet. Especially music and video files need a lot of storage space. This pushes the flash media market to develop cards with more capacity. Today, a microSD cannot keep up with the 16 GB capacity of a SD- or MMC-Card. Verbatim, however, will offer a microSD with 2 GB storage capacity this month (may 2007) followed by a microSD with 4 GB very soon.

4. Does Verbatim offer special hardware measures such as copyright or access protection?
Verbatim produces storage media according to the universally valid industrial standards like all other producers of storage media.

5. How important is the physical size of storage media? Does size still matter?
The ongoing downsizing of electronic devices especially mobile phones increases the demand to reduce the size of storage formats as well while at the same time enlarging the capacity. Physically smaller formats are still possible and with respect to the capacity the end is not reached either. Nevertheless, the question is whether customers will ask for really small products in general. Mobile phones for example became slimmer throughout the last years but not necessarily smaller. Since the usability of devices and storage media sets limits to size in the end, the user will decide which product is going to be accepted.

Contact

Maria Csilics
Verbatim GmbH
Frankfurter Straße 63-69
65760 Eschborn
Tel.  +49 (0)6196-9001-30
mcsilics@verbatim-europe.com
www.verbatim-europe.com

Gerrit Baur
komm.passion GmbH
Lucile-Grahn-Straße 37
81675 München
Tel.  +49 (0)89-489272-37
gerrit.baur@komm-passion.de
verbatim@komm-passion.de 

About Verbatim:
Since 1969, Verbatim has been shaping the development of data storage technology – from floppy disks and magneto-optical storage media to the latest CD and DVD formats, USB keys, Flash memory cards and computer accessories. Verbatim is part of the Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Group and benefits from the outstanding research and development department. With these innovations Verbatim has played a key role in shaping the storage media market. Ultra-strict quality controls during the manufacturing process ensure the high quality of Verbatim’s products, which have been the winners of numerous international comparative tests. The company is the European market leader for optical media. For more information please visit: www.verbatim-europe.com