SanDisk Shipped Two Billion microSD Cards

SanDisk Corporation has shipped more than two billion microSD cards since it started commercial shipment of the technology ten years ago.

The company commemorates this milestone on the eve of Mobile World Congress Shanghai.

Invented by SanDisk in 2004, the microSD format was initially known as TransFlash. In 2005 SanDisk contributed the technology to the SD Card Association who renamed and released the final specifications for the microSD format on July 13, 2005.

This format has become the most popular removable memory card in SanDisk’s history. Collectively, SanDisk’s two billion microSD cards could store an estimated 11,103 billion megabytes worth of memory – the equivalent of more than 100MB of flash storage for every man, woman and child that ever lived on Earth.

The microSD card – which reduced the size of removable memory cards by approximately 75% – has played a pivotal role in consumer markets. For example, the vast majority of ‘point of view’ or action cameras – the fastest-growing segment in digital imaging – are based around the microSD format.

The microSD format has also helped propel the smartphone market by giving both manufacturers and consumers greater flexibility and freedom. Approximately 75% of smartphone models on the market contain microSD slots, according to data from Strategy Analytics¹. Google included microSD slots in two of its fastest-growing and largest mobile product segments – Android One, its mobile OS for sub-$200 phones, and phones designed for emerging markets. Android M, Google’s next mobile OS, and Windows Mobile both permit consumers to run applications on microSD cards and/or increase the primary storage capacity of their devices.

“Demand for storage never stops growing. We will soon see smartphones with multiple-aperture lenses, phones capable of shooting UltraHD video and applications for taking and viewing virtual reality environments,” said Shuki Nir, SVP, corporate marketing and GM, Retail, SanDisk. “microSD memory cards will also be instrumental in the growth of the Internet of Things by lowering the barrier to experimentation. Two billion is just the beginning, and we look forward to contributing to future technologies enabled by the microSD format.“

A decade of SanDisk microSD technology:

The first microSD cards featured capacities starting at 32MB. SanDisk’s latest microSD form factor card is a microSDXC that offers up to 200GB of capacity, a 6,250x increase in just 10 years.
It took three years for CompactFlash cards to reach one million shipments. By contrast, over one million microSD cards were shipped in the first full quarter of availability.
On average, SanDisk has shipped 6.34 microSD cards every second since the formal unveiling of the specifications.
If you lined up SanDisk’s two billion microSD cards end-to-end, they would extend 18,451 miles or three-quarters of the way around the world.
In 2014, SanDisk announced the 128GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-Imemory card, a twist on the format that enabled the company to vertically stack up to 16 memory die in the same card and expand capacity without changing the footprint of the device. Each memory die in this microSDXC card is thinner than a strand of hair.
In 2015, SanDisk introduced the 200GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I memory card, Premium Edition, a high capacity for the form factor, upping capacity by 56% in just one year.
SanDisk flash memory cards have held the number-one market share position worldwide for 13 straight years².

With more than 5,000 patents, SanDisk impacts many markets through its flash memory innovations. In recognition of its achievements, SanDisk was named a Thompson Reuters 2014 Top 100 Global Innovator, an honor the company has received for four consecutive years.

SanDisk at Mobile World Congress Shanghai
SanDisk also introduced separately the iNAND 7232 storage solution, an embedded storage solution optimized to deliver imaging performance and superior storage capacity in mobile devices. SanDisk will be displaying its complete line of embedded and removable mobile memory solutions, including the new iNAND 7232 storage solution, in the company’s Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2015.

¹SpecTraX service from Strategy Analytics
²Source: Gartner Market Share Analysis: Flash Cards and USB Flash Drives Worldwide, May 2014 – (2001-2014)