Memory Card trends for PPC

[MingTyh]

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether there will continue to be PPCs with BOTH CF and SD slots? I wonder this b/c I want to invest in a CF GPS card, and would like to have the SD slot to hold maps, and want this formula to work well into the future. Thanks!

[CBuchanon]

I feel it's a hard read. More devices are coming out that are SDIO capable, but there seems to be a lack of SDIO devices. You also have more devices that have integrated BlueTooth, but I've yet to hear someone that has gotten it to work consistently, without a problem. I would hope that if manufacturers decide to switch away from CF, they would offer expansion devices so that current CF users can use their devices with furture handhelds.

Although I have the PC-Card expansion pack, I chose to go with BlueTooth GPS. Really, that was my whole basis for going with a 5555...I wanted as many integrated features w/o sacrificing expandability.

[Gerard]

The number of companies making CF Type I and II cards for an increasing range of uses at present seems to indicate a growing industy commitment to the format. This is no guarantee of course, as major device types have disappeared before... However, owing to trends among PPC manufacturers, I'd guess that there will continue to be new models of Pocket PC with CF slots for at least the next 2 or 3 years, and probably longer. Just today a 4GB Microdrive was announced. There is a USB>CF interface card. CORE makes a phenomenal audiophile-grade CF adaptor recording card for PPCs. The range of network and modem card versions is amazing. Memory is getting cheaper, but flash type CF cards are getting larger in capacity all the time (now up to 6GB, I think).

Of course, if you want a tiny little PPC like a 1910 iPAQ, a CF slot ain't likely. But for sensibly sized devices, which many users find more practical, there are a number of models with CF slots and SD slots both. The HP 22xx devices, obviously, and the new Toshiba e8xx, are two very prominent examples. If CF goes away, I'll be left with a number of useless cards and a great deal of anger, so I'm hoping it doesn't go that way.

[MingTyh]

Thanks for some great insight, guys!

[Bandung]

I would concur that the CF card format is not likely to disappear in the next 2-3 years.

Because CF cards have the real estate to play with, during this timeframe they will continue to lead SD cards, etc in terms of reliability, faster read/write speeds and the all important self healing abilities (because of their built-in controller).

Eventually, the "minimizing size and power "factors will probably prevail but realistically, not before 2 or 3 years. Three years is a long time in this industry. The average pc gets replaced every 5 years (those corporate accounts tend to drag their heals more than the consumer) My guess is that people will want to change their PDA's far more often than that - say every 3 years. In that time you may want something completely different.

[sourdaisy]

I see the current trend to be heading away from CF and towards SD. With more multi-function devices hitting the market (PDA, cell phones, mp3 player, etc) SD is the only media currently that is small enough to fit into the smallest of devices.

I'm personally not happy at this prospect because I really think SD is a lousy storage format, but from a business standpoint I can somewhat agree.

[Evildude]

SD Tech should be the wave of the future. Its small, light and a low power consumer. CF Tech is OLD,in fact its just about a decade old now if not older. ( i got my first toy with a CF slot back in 93). Since everything is getting smaller, just move it all to sd. pretty much everything you need can fit on the device, and hell, if neded to, you can stich the main interface in the slot, and sling the rest of the electronics on the back of the device. I was actually amazedat my sandisk wi-fi card for about 10 minutes. Then i fugured if the can do this, its just a done deal.

Even when the next ce divices come out, we can keep the cards.