SanDisk, to woo photography professionals as well as techies, on Wednesday (in India) launched the 512GB Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I memory card, and not only that but also to cater to the growing needs of the Instagram junkies launched its microSD UHS-I memory card, the 64GB SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-I card.
The company says that the newly announced 512GB Extreme Pro card is the “world’s highest capacity SD card” launched in the market and the 64GB Extreme PRO the “fastest microSD card”.
“As an industry leader, SanDisk continues to push the boundaries of technology to provide customers with the innovative, reliable, high-performance solutions they have come to expect from us,” said Rajesh Gupta, Country Manager India, SanDisk Corporation. “4K Ultra HD is an example of a technology that is pushing us to develop new storage solutions capable of handling massive file sizes. The 512GB SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-I card is a tremendous advancement that enables professionals to reliably store more content on a single card than ever before.”
The SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SDHC/SDXC memory cards are available in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB worldwide. The company announced that the 512GB Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I card will be available at Rs 51,990 (MSRP).
SanDisk states in a press release, “The new offering is designed to meet the demands of industry professionals who require the most advanced gear available for shooting 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) (3840x2160p) video, full-HD video (1920×1080) and high-speed burst mode photography.”
The new 512GB Extreme Pro card is supposedly waterproof, shock-proof, and X-ray proof, while also featuring RescuePRO Deluxe data recovery software (download required) for recovering accidentally deleted images, and comes with the company’s Lifetime limited warranty.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com Akash Das, ace fashion and wildlife photographer said: “This product from SanDisk clearly proves that ‘small is actually big and powerful’. As a passionate photographer I always tend to see other folks taking a few snaps and then deleting the ones which they feel they won’t use to save space; this 512 GB card will allow creativity to flow, without worrying about memory constraints. So go out there and be trigger happy for a change.”
Some of the highlight features of the new SanDisk 512GB Extreme Pro card includes support for write speeds up to 90MB/s and read speeds up to 95MB/s. It is compatible with SDXC and SDXC-I (UHS-I) enabled host devices.
Commenting on the launch, Hui Low, manager, product marketing management, Asia Pacific for SanDisk said: “4K Ultra HD is an example of a technology that is pushing us to develop new storage solutions capable of handling massive file sizes. The 512GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I card is a tremendous advancement that enables professionals to reliably store more content on a single card than ever before.”
Earlier this year, SanDisk launched its Ultra microSDXC UHS-1 128GB memory card in India at a suggested retail price of Rs 9,999.
“Features like 4K Ultra HD video recording, which were once only available on high-end devices, have quickly gained popularity and adoption,” added Rajesh Gupta on the product launch. “There is no doubt 4K Ultra HD is a game-changer and we are committed to enabling the next generation of video capture and sharing.”
The SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDHC/microSDXC UHS-I cards are available worldwide in capacities of 32GB and 64GB and range in pricing from Rs 4,900 and Rs 9,700 (MSRP).
Sharing his thoughts on the microSD ace photographer Kaustav Saikia said: “The future is mobile and the best camera one can easily access is their mobile phones, with some of them having well over 14 MP and higher. With higher memory space on phones it will allow more people to become citizen journalists, use social media to inform the world and not just that youngsters love to carry a lot of music and movies along with them so this is right up their alley.”
In a foresight presentation Clarence Cho, marketing director, Asia Pacific, SanDisk Corp said that there will be 75 billion connected devices by 2020 and 30 per cent of new notebooks will have SSDs by 2017. “We are clearly targeting three mega markets for our products – Mobile, Computing and Consumer Electronics. And for the same we also tied up with Toshiba in a JV worth $196 million,” he added.
The company representatives also mentioned that India is a very important market for them and the Bengaluru office is a very crucial participant in all R&D that takes place on various product categories. According to a few industry sources SanDisk boasts of a market share of nearly 35 per cent (this could be higher or lower) and the company is also focusing a lot more on after sale services as well.