Crack in the Memory Stick facade

Earlier this month I attended the massive CES 2006 show in Las Vegas. When you meet someone during or after the show, the stock question you get is: "What was the coolest thing you've seen at the show?" My answer: the new Sony Reader.

What was impressive about this device was not the electronic ink technology, nor the range of improvements this version 2.0 device shows over its predecessor. No, the most amazing this about this device is that this is a Sony device that accepts SD media cards.

In early 1988 I had the chance in Japan to see a Sony representative demonstrate the Mavica, their first production digital camera. For the past 18 years I've watched Sony's relentless efforts to foist this memory format on a rather uninterested public. In all those years I have experienced exactly one occasion where I found myself needing to transfer files between two devices that turned out to both be Sony devices and where I was hence able to use a Memory Stick to directly transfer the files.

It's gratifying to see Sony finally concede the inevitable and recognize the standard media formats that consumers actually want to use.

Comments

[Damien B]

It's not that new. For years we have had some devices accepting MS and CF. And don't forget one of the leading markets for Sony, Japan, where the trend is on MS-Duo and mini-SD. So, right now, it's not obvious that people want to use SD all over the world.

[bob]

The issues for me:
* Way too expensive when compared to the alternatives.

* Did Sony license the readers early on? Either they didn't, or no one stuck a reader into their devices other than Sony.

* Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Pro Duo? How many do we have, and apparently, some aren't backwards compatible with others?

* Lately- wouldn't it be nicer if my TV just had a wireless connection and a small amt of built-in memory so that I could put pictures, etc, to it? Or wifi and it could read things off my share?

[Damien B]

Bob, everything was licensed. They tried to put a non-Sony organization behind the Memory Stick, but it was a failure. But if you look the devices today like photo-printers and PCs, all of them that have an integrated flash-memory reader are able to read the 3 major formats (CF, SD/MMC, MS). Right now the most painful format is xD, not MS.

[Lyn Coffin]

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