SMART PHOTOGRAPHY DAILY BULLETIN
January 8, 2010
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Imaging India Flashes its Brilliance The 15th edition of Photofair 2010 got off to a roaring start after the inaugural function, which was flagged off by Uddhav Thackeray (Executive President, Shiv Sena), and Priya Dutt, (Member of Parliament), along with Adhik Shirodkar (Senior Advocate), and the committee of the All India Photographic Trade and Industry Association (AIPTIA). “This is one of the biggest Photofair, given the economic boom and the tremendous increase in the exhibitor profile,” said Jayesh Mehta, the Hon. President of AIPTIA.
Daily
ROVING
REPORTER
Hustle and Bustle Glimpse of the huge crowd at the main entrance of Photofair 2010
The current expo is spread over an area of 2 lakh square feet and housing 185 exhibitors. The Hon President pinpointed that—the one big difference that is evident today is— that the number of service providers have increased tremendously, which is adding value to India, both as a brand and as a destination. He emphasized that the global photo industry could take a clue from this and make India a global sourcing hub of the future. Priya Dutt (L), Jayesh Mehta, Uddhav Thackeray, Chandrakant Shah lighting the traditional lamp to formally inaugurate Photofair 2010
Priya Dutt recalled that she is not a great photographer unlike many in the audience, but as a photo enthusiast she immensely appreciates the value of the art, which captures memories for ever. “Definitely, digital has revolutionized photography and the new technology has brought about a greater degree of accessibility to the creative process,” she said.
Fashion statement The fashion show at Photofair, organized by Nikon, raised the glamor quotient...
Adhik Shirodkar, who has been an ardent photographer, apart from being a senior advocate, said that the digital revolution is like a Tsunami that has changed the technical tools of the art. But, he reminded that photography is still an art, and all the capture devices are only tools to improve the creativity. Uddhav Thackeray said that he felt it was only last year that he had inaugurated the photo expo, while in reality it was more than two years. He sounded a warning to politicians, that there is always a danger lurking with politicians being hounded by spy cameras and other gadgets. In lighter vein, he compared the similarities between a photographer and a politician—both is about exposing, whether it’s negative or positive it’s upto the viewer to understand the difference. In a walk down memory lane, Uddhav recalled that he still values his Nikon F3 camera presented to him by his father. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks by Chandrakant Shah, Hon. Secretary of AIPTIA.
Mathew Thottungal
The Smart-way Learn, enjoy, experience, and take home the thrill of photography with Smart Photography magazine. Avail our special Photofair 2010 offers.
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SMART PHOTOGRAPHY DAILY BULLETIN
Editor Hoshang S Billimoria Technical Editor Rohinton Mehta Executive Editor Mathew Thottungal Copy Editor Trisha Mukherjee Senior Correspondent Sujith Gopinath Group Art Director Atul Bandekar Design Ajit Manjrekar, Sanjay Awad, Nandakishor Sawant, Ajay Paradkar Imaging Desk Ninad Jadhav, Deepak Narkar Production Dinesh Bhajnik, Manojkumar Singh Publisher Khushroo Bhadha Regional Manager - Sales and Marketing A. Mageshwar - Tamil Nadu & Kerala Area Advertising Manager Harshvardhan Verma - Delhi Account Manager Deepa Ghadi - Mumbai Gaurav Choudhary - Ahmedabad Response Executive Pooja Wankhede - Mumbai Manish Kumar - Delhi Circulation and Subscription Sanjeev Roy (Asst. Operations Manager) Sachin Kelkar (Subscription Supervisor) Kapil Kaushik (Circulation Manager, Delhi) HEAD OFFICE - Mumbai Tel: + 91 22 43525252 Fax: + 91 22 24448289 Email: sp@nextgenpublishing.net Subscription Tel: + 91 22 43525220 Fax: + 91 22 24448289 Email: subscriptions@nextgenpublishing.net
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The Skyrocketing Photobook Market Snapfish by HP entered 50,000 4,000 Photobook Production a partnership agreement 45,000 3,500 North America (x1,000) with eBay India for the 40,000 launch of a co-branded 3,000 35,000 India (x1,000) Photo Center, enabling 2,500 over 3 million eBay India 30,000 users to upload, store, 2,000 25,000 and share an unlimited 20,000 1,500 number of photographic 15,000 images and to create 1,000 10,000 and print a wide array 500 5,000 of personalized photo products. Based 0 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 upon the historical India North America Fig. 1 development of this emerging high margin output knowledge; as well as service— business, we expect the photo Canvera offers a 24-48 hour imaging market in India to blossom, turnaround time, and has achieved with photobooks becoming 100 percent compliance. the driver. Figure 1 shows our estimates of the size of the One of the barriers to faster photobook market in India (330,000 development of the photobook, in 2009) compared to that in North and personalized photo products, America (26.7 million in 2009). business in India has been the difficulty of selling nationally. Rai During the same meeting, commented that Canvera does Peeyush Rai, co-founder and Chef have a national customer base, Technical Officer at Canvera Digital although it has not yet expanded Technologies in Bangalore spoke internationally. He sells through about his experience launching email, blogs, partner affiliate his company, the first one in India marketing, and was experimenting dedicated to producing photobooks with social networks in 2009. for professional photographers. He noted that professional His company was founded in photobooks in India are larger February 2007 and became fully than those in other countries, operational in July 2008. He and that Canvera is determined estimated that there are 250,000 to maintain its gross margins. professional photographers in India. For consumers, Snapfish India is Canvera has both a client/desktop using a variety of marketing tools, software design application and including Facebook and Twitter an online application for creating to drive the market. Other online photobooks, and also offers design photo imaging services are also services to its customers. developing more sophisticated Having spent time working at marketing tools. Consequently, we Shutterfly in the US prior to are forecasting that growth in the founding Canvera, he said that market in India for photobooks, and the Shutterfly business model other personalized photo products, did not work in India. The user will begin to accelerate this year behavior is not “self-service”, so and in the future, as shown in a greater amount of customer Figure 1. This is created from a service is required. The keys to the very sophisticated Excel-based success of his company have been forecasting program offered by a culture of continuous product Photo Imaging News. Don Franz innovations, dedicated Research (Photo Imaging News) & Development, and industry
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SMART PHOTOGRAPHY DAILY BULLETIN
QA &
Having been into Medical Imaging and Healthcare products, you have now entered the photographic market and Photofair’10 offers you the biggest opportunity to target your customers in a big way. What is the latest products that VMS is launching at the venue and what are the USPs? Yes we have been into Medical Imaging and Healthcare products since the last two decades. We represent AGFA medical products through our own setup of 20 offices and have the C&F operations all over the country. In addition, we also have been in the photo trading business since 1994 and also associated with Kodak for their range of photo products for selected region of operations.
Suresh Rathi, Managing Director, Vinod Medical Systems
be to re-launch and market it more professionally. We are confident for receiving the positive response from the industry and we hope to succeed with this product as well.
Are you offering any special promotions and discounts to make your products popular amongst the masses and is there any interactive sessions being conducted? We are aware of the high turnover of visitors during the Photofair exhibition and shall definitely have some special promotions, schemes, and discounts for immediate response from them. Our sales personnel would be available to handle queries and suggestions put forward by the visitors who would like to associate with us.
Past two years, we have successfully established ‘VMS’ branded X–Ray films in parallel with other brands like Kodak, Fuji, and Konica. It was indeed sheer hard work that we did achieve our goal. This has strengthened our belief to add more products under the ‘VMS’ brand and take it on a pan India scale.
Photo-printing is gaining acceptance in the country, but with the consumable market being dominated by unorganized players, prices have gone for a toss. How do you still plan to educate the consumers in a such a volatile market to buy your products ahead of competition and also over branded products?
Photofair’10 will be our biggest opportunity and a learning platform for us to get a fair reaction and also opinion for our VMS branded Inkjet papers, Cartridges, CISS, Inks, and Laser toners from new customers, dealers, and retailers.
Yes, this is a very good question. Fortunately the photo printing business is growing in India and thus offers everyone (organized and unorganized players) an opportunity to share their role. Unorganized players are mostly interested only for shortterm survival and vanish before they can even make a second attempt. We have been taking it as a challenge over the last 20 years of our business and have smartly cornered them with our transparent business dealings
We shall also be displaying Ansmann batteries with whom we have recently tied-up. They are one of the finest battery products available in the international market. Our efforts would
Vinod Jaisinghani, Director, Vinod Medical Systems
and by offering consistent quality products and services. Customers are also more educated, have better awareness, and value relations that makes it bit easier to explain the merits. With regard to branded competition we are more excited to work with them in growing the market. We look at a problem as a challenge or an opportunity, rather than a threat. We don’t believe in ‘facing a problem, but standing up to a challenge. This has been our winning strength.
It’s believed that Ansmann chargers are the best in business, but in a market that is clearly dominated by reputed brand already having a solid network base, how do you envisage to take on competition on one hand, while spreading your network on the other? Yes, Ansmann products are definitely the best in the industry. The parent company have changed their distributor and given it to us as a challenging opportunity to not only re-establish the brand, but also to revive the entire business. We know there are other strong and reputed brands available in the Indian market and it won’t be a cake-walk for us. Big traders, retailers, and professionals in India are already aware of Ansmann and it would be a challenging exercise to market it better and make it a big success in this competitive market. Fortunately, the counters for our existing Inkjet products and that for batteries are the same and this makes the task easier. We already have a team, besides the infrastructure, and network, to make it a big success.
Mathew Thottungal
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SMART PHOTOGRAPHY DAILY BULLETIN
V
iewpoint Kinya Yoshimura, General Manager, India Liaison Office Olympus Imaging
Olympus To Concentrate On The Pen and Tough Series
Olympus arrived at Photofair 2010 with a dual strategy to take the Olympus ‘Tough Series’ forward and to emphasize on its revolutionary ‘Pen Series’. The latest Micro Four Thirds camera has set the market on fire, where ever the product has been launched and the Indian market is no different.
Definitely, the arrival of affordable D-SLRs will trigger the photographic boom in the country because it offers a step-up to move ahead into high-end photography. But, the main obstacle towards graduating to high-end photography (or else D-SLR photography) is as always, the price.
The demand for the product is so huge that Olympus is unable to meet the demand-supply chain. However, with production of the cameras increasing it’s now on the company’s inventory charts. At Photofair ’10, Pen will undoubtedly be the main showcase for our customers, not only to touch and feel the camera, but also to understand the convenience that it ushers into photography. Olympus aims to increase its market share to 15 percent by the year end. And for that to happen the company hopes to increase its sales channel and distribution expansion program this year.
But, the availability of D-SLRs at less than Rs.30,000 will certainly help to expand the market. In fact, the migration will only take place gradually. But, Olympus is currently hedging its bets on the Pen Series, rather than emphasizing on traditional D-SLRs.
Says Kinya Yoshimura, General Manager, India Liaison Office, “It’s over ten months since I have taken charge of the Indian market, but this expo is probably the biggest opportunity for us to engage with our customers and to emphasize the unique selling points in our products to them.”
In order to help customers understand the Pen Series, he points out that it’s not only easy, but also convenient to carry, and the camera has a very user-friendly system. Yoshimura attributes the roadblocks in stepping up to D-SLRs in India predominately, is price on one hand and being too heavy and complicated on the other. This is precisely the reason why the Pen Series is likely to sell more because it addresses many of these problems that has been retarding the growth of the D-SLR market. However, the big change happening in the country is that the market
is moving over to an authorized camera sales market. In fact, if the government would come in with some sops, the entire gray market that exists will be wiped out for sure. Olympus market share has increased compared to last year’s, and with the arrival of the Pen Series it’s likely to pick up even further. Even the distribution and service channels of Olympus have not been strengthened, but it has been doubled. While in 2008 the Olympus brand was only available across photo channels and in limited metros. In 2009, the brand is now visible across Tier-II cities as well. The company’s focus is to increase the total service channel to 13 with the commissioning of four service centers across North and East India respectively. India is a very diverse country and it’s actually difficult to increase the store front branding. However, the company plans to increase its visibility across Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh this year. Even the company is concentrating to increase the Olympus brand visibility by engaging in PR activities and this will continue to happen in 2010.
Mathew Thottungal
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SMART PHOTOGRAPHY DAILY BULLETIN
QA &
Which fields are incorporated in Sony’s B&I division and how important is this business segment for the company’s Indian operations? B&I division means the Business & Industrial Products, which is a part of Business & Professional Products Division of Sony India. It markets Sony’s leading B2B products, i.e. digital photo printers, medical image capturing, recording, monitoring, and printing products, as well as video-conferencing and surveillance systems in India market. It also provides customized business solutions, comprehensive technical support and after-sales service to help Sony’s customers stay at the forefront of their business. B2B Solutions Business has been a unique and important element of Sony developing leading edge technology for B2B customers. India is definitely most important and growing market with much culture in visual entertainment.
Sony’s Professional division combines a rich suite of broadcast and professional products and solutions. But then, Sony electronic heritage is so overpowering that the other segments don’t seem to keep pace with it. Do we expect to see major changes with Sony India getting more focused in other fields of activity as well in the current year?
Spokesperson : Avinash J Trivedi, Designation : Head, B&I Department, BPP Division, Sony India
Sony’s strength is in the visual technology and we continue to provide products to our professional customers to add value to their businesses. Our professional customer today requires solutions to their needs and we try our best to satisfy needs.
“Photo-printing market is driven by ‘consumer experience’ and value-added services” Sony’s portable printers produce beautiful photo prints and in a variety of sizes and formats. But then India being a price sensitive market, how do you reconcile price and media cost to make things a lot more affordable for the consumer to print and how? The photo-printing market is driven by “consumer experience” and other value-added services and not just by price, moreover, price and media cost is largely related to demand and volumes generated by the market. In addition to the conventional photo market – this is the time to target more than $35 billion retail photo-printing market. It is in
this direction that Sony will work with its partners to roll out its instant photo printing solutions in a wide variety of locations, such as mass-merchandisers, club stores, supermarkets, drug stores, photo specialty stores, electronics stores, office product stores, and less traditional photo service locations.
With the Indian economy looking all the more bullish, how do you envisage a strong future for your division in 2010 and what is your roadmap to take the company forward? India has been one of the emerging and strategic markets for Sony and has recorded appreciable growth over a period of time. Going forward, we expect more growth, strategic, and otherwise from this market.
Mathew Thottungal Kodak Launches at Photofair 2010 At Photofair 2010, Kodak launches its latest Zi8 DVC. With the Internet penetration growing fast and social networking getting increasingly popular in India, the company believes there is market for a trendy video capture product especially amongst the younger generation. While the video camera market is relatively flat, the Kodak DVCs are more fun video capture device aimed at capture those beautiful, fun and impulsive moments and easily share it over You Tube, Orkut or Facebook.
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QA &
Is SanDisk unveiling any new memory cards exclusively at Photofair’10 and secondly, are you contemplating any promotional activities to engage with the customers at the expo? At Photofair 2010, the world’s third largest photographic equipment and accessories exhibition, SanDisk will be showcasing its most advanced imaging cards—SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash and SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash memory cards, which are reliable, high-capacity, and designed for professional photographers sure to set new standards. Yes, we will certainly be hosting some on-ground promotional activities during the Photofair to engage with our customers and make them experience SanDisk imaging cards. This exercise will also serve to help our customers understand the benefits of flash memory in high-end digital imaging better.
Flash memory segment witnessed the strongest growth in all the formats during the last couple of years. In your assessment, how important was 2009 for SanDisk in India, in terms of growth and increasing market shares especially, with regard to the four different product categories? The year 2009 had played a very significant role in the overall growth of SanDisk India across all its product portfolios. India has been witnessing rapid adoption of consumer electronics such as mobile phones, digital cameras, personal computers, and digital music players, which has led to the proliferation of memory/ storage. SanDisk has been at the
Spokesperson : Manisha Sood, Designation : Country Head, SanDisk India and SAARC
helm of flash technology revolution. We have been able to shift the market for flash memory from mere ‘data storage’ to ‘lifestyle storage’ today.
it computers, MP3 players, mobile phones or cameras, the sole differentiating factor that gives these products an edge is flash memory.
Our growth is directly proportional to the growth of the four different product categories we operate in: mobile phone market, camera market, USB flash market, and computing segment. Mobile memory card has seen growth to a large extent in 2009 in India. Hence, the largest selling product in the SanDisk portfolio in India is the Micro SD card due to mobile phones having an attach rate of 34 percent (as per the GfK GSM report September 2009).
SanDisk has been at the heart of innovation pioneering innovations like the power controller feature, which enables to capture both in RAW as well in JPEG files in highend photography and ideographic. But, speed and performance is absolutely critical in high-end photography. Comment.
India is one of the fastest and largest growing markets for digital cameras. According to market researchers International Data Corp. (IDC), the Indian digital camera market was worth over Rs 1,000 crore in 2008 and is expected to grow further in 2010. India saw around 1 million units of cameras with memory slots being sold and the attach ratio for camera cards is 2:1 (global attach ratio). We see a huge potential in the computing segment with the advent of Solid State Drive (SSD) technology. IDC recently hiked their projected worldwide sales of netbooks to reach 11 million this year, growing to 41 million in 2012. SanDisk sells its pSSD product line for the netbook segment. SSD is expected to supplant HDD in the computing market, SSD-equipped notebooks will be a strategic market for SanDisk as market adoption accelerates. According to a report by Gartner One—five computing devices will have solid state drives by 2011-12. In the growing devices market be
Yes, absolutely speed and performance are the main drivers for high-end photography. The latest SanDisk Extreme Pro Compact Flash card features a new SanDisk Power Core Controller, an advanced memory controller that enables read and write speeds of up to 90MB/sec over a UDMA-6 bus, and there is SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash cards with up to 60MB/s read/write speed.
Shooting high definition videos is the new standard, which has necessitated the demand for the growth of flash memory. Does that mean that the changing digital lifestyle will continue to influence the R&D capabilities of memory card vendors in the near future? How does SanDisk view the changing architecture? We certainly think that the changing digital lifestyle will continue to influence our products and the R&D team. SanDisk’s strategy in India is to provide consumers with the highest quality products with the best value. We will continue to offer products that are ideal for a variety of uses including a range of cards for digital cameras and camcorders, USB flash drives and cards for mobile phones.
Mathew Thottungal
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At Photofair’10, what are the products that Vitec Group will be showcasing and secondly, are you introducing any new tripods at the expo, and how different it is from the current line up? Yes, we are looking at Photofair’10 as an important event to reach out to photo enthusiasts of all hue. We would be showcasing not only our world famous and established range, that’s already available and accepted across the country, but also introduce quite a few new items under the M-Y family. These will be entirely new line of tripods and heads that would be launched as innovative and compact easyto-carry solution. It will also have a mandatory back pack as part of it. We also plan to introduce a new range of Joystick Heads, which will augment the existing range and offer discerning customers a wider choice. These new products have been fully developed by our in-house R&D team based on customer suggestions and feedbacks. So, you can say these are customers’ own products.
Are you contemplating any interactive sessions to engage with the photographers to showcase the diverse range of your company’s product portfolio? We remain in regular touch with selective professional photographers, high-end amateurs and discerning photo enthusiasts from across the world through out the year. We undertake various interactive educational sessions enabling people to learn from each other. Though we don’t have a formal interaction planned for the Photofair, yet we believe there would be possibility of plenty of informal
Spokesperson : Sabyasachi Dutta, Designation : Lino Manfrotto, India Manager
discussions. We would welcome all to visit our stall to have a feel and try out some of our diverse and innovative products that normally visitors won’t get at one place. I am sure it will be a treat for many a first timers to check our range of products that would be on display.
“Probably we have one of the strongest R&D teams in the world who reads photo enthusiast’s mind to a T” With India’s economic outlook looking bullish, what is the importance you attach to customizing the R&D activities in tune with the Indian photographic market needs and what are some of the innovations that you have ushered into your product lines? Our company was formed by Lino Manfrotto who felt the need of a photo accessories manufacturer who would understand the mind and soul of a person with camera in hand. Since then we have traversed a long path and introduced many innovative products. Probably we have one of the strongest R&D teams in the world who reads photo enthusiast’s mind to a T. As stated above, we have high expectations from the M-Y range, which we would be introducing in both Aluminum and Carbon Fiber material. This line has been developed keeping in mind a
lot about Indian customers’ demands and they would surely like them.
With the commissioning of Vitec Group’s India office in Mumbai, what is the biggest change that has happened to your marketing activities? How do you evaluate last year (2009) in terms of growth and what are your plans to take the company forward in 2010? Globally 2009 has been a tough year, yet we showed strong performance. With signs of economic revival across the board we have some great activities lined up for 2010. After having an Indian entity firmly in place we would be expanding our reach in India and have a range of ATL and BTL activities during the year. We are seeing lot of buzz in the Indian photo market and hope to carve an exalted space for us in customers mind. The year 2010 could well be a watershed year for us.
One of the major constraints in the country is service and distribution architecture. Currently, have you managed to spread a pan India distribution mechanism in place? India is a huge country geographically. And there could be a potential customer waiting to be tapped across various nook and corner. Effective reach is extremely vital. Our Indian distribution model is presently ‘work in progress’ and we are still a bit away from our own benchmark that we have established in other matured markets. Our shortterm goal is to cement our position in Metros and Tier-1 cities first and then move aggressively to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
Mathew Thottungal
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QA &
Arguably Noritsu are the pioneers of the minilab movement and also the leaders in the photofinishing space. At Photofair’10 what are the products that you will be showcasing, especially given the falling margins of prints from film? Being the pioneers of the minilab movement, Noritsu has come with the concept of “Refocus”. A Refocus would bring in new options, a menu more than just a photograph print for our customer and thus encouraging them to have access towards total solution in terms of photobooks, slim albums etc. During the Photofair we will be demonstrating 37HD series minilab along with the duplex D502 printer.
Last year, Noritsu introduced the D502, (the first retail Inkjet printer), the D703 (which is the compact dry minilab), and also the QSS-37HD series of high definition printers. With dry labs clearly dominating the developed markets, in your view will this trend continue to rule in our country as well? Last year we introduced the D502 and D703 models in India. The trend of Inkjet has lot of variation from developed countries where print margins are not so thin as in India. Here our strategy would be to refocus on the value for money, which plays an important role through our photo books,
Spokesperson : Ishibashi Tsuguhiro Designation : Managing Director, Noritsu India
personalized cards. Being huge market it can be segmented into various parts with different aspects. So, we will be having our minilabs along with the dry printer series like D502 and D703.
The recessionary market in 2009 was a difficult year for the minilab business in general with retailers struggling to raise the capital to invest in new equipment. But, with the trends reversing and the overall demand for prints from digital machines looking positive, what in your assessment is the outlook for the business of memories in the near future?
“Our strategy would be to refocus on the value for money, which plays an important role through photo books, personalized cards. Being huge market it can be segmented into various parts with different aspects”
See, there is certainly a market shift and our idea is to enhance our strengths and provide a complete solution to our customers and finally to the end user. In the entire chain, the role of the person at the retail counter has changed, because he is the interface between the generation of prints and the end user. With the help of silent salesman like kiosks, the business environment is changing and in this segment we have CTSL (consumer terminal). In my view, the business of memories will be very challenging, personalized-based, and creatively orientated in the near future.
While Photo books as a category is beginning to gain momentum, especially in the professional wedding photography market, how important is this segment for Noritsu and what are the solutions that you are offering to stand out from other vendors? The photobook is gaining momentum now in India and in professional wedding photography market we have our 32series and 37series minilabs. Right now, we have 37HD series to cater this segment, which has the best quality prints and in the dry minilabs we have the latest version of D502 for the photobooks with the excellent print quality that we will be demonstrating during this Photofair in Mumbai.
Mathew Thottungal
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SMART PHOTOGRAPHY DAILY BULLETIN FEATURE
All in a Flash emory modules have been constantly evolving. From punched cards to magnetic tapes and from floppy discs to optical drives, memory modules have traversed through different technological regions, breaking the barriers of capacity, speed, durability, and reliability. The introduction of high capacity memory cards, flash memory is a constant threat to the existence of mechanical drives, like hard drives. Now the big question is, where is all this development leading to?
M
Let us first evaluate the advantages of flash memory modules over hard drives. The main advantage is that flash memory does not involve any mechanical parts and hence are less prone to wear and tear. Absence of moving parts means that flash memory modules do not generate heat on operation. Another advantage is that the flash memory devices do not require power to operate. This is a major advantage since it allows the
host device to be operated with small batteries. Combined with the small form factors and high capacities (now memory cards are available with up to 2TB) this allows the host devices to be less bulky than those using hard drives. There are various types of memory cards available in the market. The first and the largest is the Compact Flash (CF) Card. There are two types of CF cards—Type I and Type II. The only difference between these is that Type I CF cards are 3.3mm thick, while Type II CF cards are 5mm thick. There is another breed of the same dimension called the Microdrive, which are miniature hard drives with all vices of mechanical drives. SD or Secure digital card is used in digital cameras and portable devices. This card is widely preferred over CF cards in portable devices and digital cameras because of the small footprint. SDHC cards have capacities greater than 4GB, while SDXC cards feature up to 2TB capacity. Also there are Memory Stick and xD cards. Mobile phone-specific cards such as
miniSD and microSD are variants of the SD cards, but due to the tiny form factor, these cards are not widely accepted in other devices, though these can be used with an SD adapter to use in SD card slots. CF card male adapters and readers use 50-pins that fit into the 50 slots on the CF card for data transfer. Hence, if you have a misaligned CF card slot, inserting the CF card can damage the pins on the male adapter. In case of SD cards, since the contacts are on the surface, there is no such risk. Though it is not easy to predict the future of flash memory, we find camera manufacturers leaning towards SD cards, though CF is still the preferred format for high-end cameras. The wide acceptance of the cards could be a reason for this change. From a consumer’s point of view, SD cards have the advantage of being interoperable between different devices such as digital cameras, PDAs, and mobile phones.
Sujith Gopinath
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