Compared to Secure Digital (SD), which go as high as 2 GB in capacity and is the most popular flash memory format, miniSD saves more than 40 percent of the printed circuit board area and 60 percent of the volume required to support a card in a portable device. It is also half the size of the already postage-stamp-sized SD card

These are huge pluses for handheld, smartphone, and mobile phone manufacturers who want to add a memory slot to ever-smaller mobile devices. IDC reports the global market for mobile phones with card slots is expected to increase to more than 258 million units by next year.

SanDisk consumer & handset executive VP Nelson Chan said a 1 GB miniSD card lets you "store approximately 16 hours of MP3 songs, record up to several hours of MPEG-4 video, or take more than 2000 digital photos on a 1-megapixel mobile phone."

In addition to Sendo's X2 Music Phone, also announced at 3GSM this week, a number of other smartphones integrate miniSD slots. These include the Motorola MPx220, Orange SPV C500, Panasonic X700, Fujitsu F900iT, and Hewlett-Packard's upcoming iPAQ Mobile Messenger (the hw6500 series), among others.

SanDisk plans to release the 1 GB miniSD card in the second quarter for about $100 with an adapter for full-sized SD card slots. A 512 MB card currently goes for about $70, while 64 MB to 256 MB models range in price from $22 to $50.