The latest rumors on the CDMA Curve are suggesting increased internal memory. Right now, the newest BlackBerrys are touting 64 MB, but these screenshots of Sprint’s 8330 show 80 MB of flash memory. Yay upgrades, but a lot of posters are awfully cynical about the news, saying it’s just not enough to keep up with competitors, while others counter that microSD is where the real memory comes from. Cards are getting bigger…
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BlackBerry 8330 getting a memory upgrade?
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Well, SanDisk is set to one-up Samsung’s rumored 8 GB microSD HC card this summer with a 16 GB deal due out in June. For now, Sandisk is featuring concepts of a 12 GB card at CES, which we can likely expect on shelves soon. Figuring out which BlackBerrys supprt high capacity memory cards has always been a bit tricky, as you mostly have to go on anecdotal evidence. Press releases, like the 8820’s, sometimes mention support, but not always. The best I’ve gathered is that any BlackBerry made after the 8830 has high capacity microSD card support, with the possibility of OS upgrades allowing younger models to use them.
ABI Research just published a paper today that forecasts memory cards to have sold $7 billion this year, while headsets take second place in the mobile accessory market at $5 billion. The prime reason for this is that headsets are becoming more frequently bundled with devices, while memory cards still need to be bought separately. This shift isn’t a huge surprise, since mobile multimedia is gaining popularity and needs to address hardware bottlenecks. With high capacity SD cards becoming more widespread and the new UFS card gaining support, the memory market is looking pretty sweet.
Nokia, Samsung and a handful of other manufacturers announced yesterday that they’re looking to bring all devices together into one happy family known as Universal Flash Storage. One of the primary drivers of this new standard is to do away with the need for size adapters, which is a worthwhile cause in my books. Nokia’s setting the bar pretty high for UFS: “Today, users experience a three-minute access time for a 90-minute (4 Gigabyte) high-definition movie; with the new standard, this would be reduced to a few seconds.” Ultimately, the standard will encompass both internal and external memory across a wide range of devices. As flash storage users, BlackBerrys could very well get in on this action, at least once the standard is finalized in 2009.
Toshiba’s busting out their own 8 GB card alongside some considerably beefier cards, getting up to the 32 GB mark. SanDisk’s cards high-density memory cards have been in the works for awhile now, and Samsung’s are on the way too, but damn, have you ever tried to actually get your hands on any SDHC card? They’re in short supply, let me tell you. Remember the BlackBerry 8820’s press release stating how the microSDHC slot would be able to support up to 32 GB? It’s really not that far off. The 16 GB SD card should be available in October, while the 8 GB microSDHC and 32 GB SD card will be rolling out January ‘08.
Magmic’s main BlackBerry man, Jeff Bacon, is back with another piece for us. This time, however, Jeff isn’t answering your BlackBerry questions, but giving you the straight deal on the Pearl. You see, as a trusted BlackBerry developer, Jeff has had his hand on the Pearl for some time, but hasn’t been able to talk about it to anyone until it was officially announced (which was today, duh). So take a look at this little pearl of wisdom Jeff sent to our inbox this morning — one that might change your mind on how effective a multimedia device the Pearl will be.
Continue reading ‘Special Bacon on BlackBerry: The Curse of the Black Pearl’
