Sony admits defeat on Memory Stick

Angus Kidman
07 January 2010, 2:46 PM


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CES 2010: The company will begin supporting and selling SD cards as an alternative.


Sony has all but admitted defeat in the portable storage market, announcing that it will begin manufacturing SD and SDHC cards and integrating options to use them into many of its devices.

Sony has supported the Memory Stick format and its variants since launching in 1998, promoting it via its Cyber-shot cameras, Vaio laptops and the PlayStation Portable. However, SD and its successors such as SDHDC, along with USB-based flash storage, have come to dominate the market for portable storage.

Sony Electronics president Stan Glasgow announced the shift as an aside during the company's CES press conference in Las Vegas. "It's all about providing consumers with choice," he said.

As well as manufacturing its own SD and SDHC cards, Sony will also begin adding SD storage options to some of its products. The first devices to see that shift will be its digital imaging range of Handycam and Cyber-shot cameras

Glasgow was at pains to emphasise that Sony wasn't abandoning Memory Stick entirely. "We will continue to enhance the MemoryStick format," he said. Given a choice, however, it's hard to imagine many consumers opting for the Memory Stick version of a device over the SD alternative.


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K (New user):

Sony - the company you can rely on to produce dud standards (Betamax, minidisc, memory stick)... oh well, at least they got it right with Blu-Ray.

07 January 2010, 3:17 PM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

petert (Advanced Forumologist):

Quoting K:
Sony - the company you can rely on to produce dud standards (Betamax, minidisc, memory stick)

I am unsure what you mean. There was nothing wrong with the standards. Each of the technologies you mention was actually superior to competing products at the time. The problem was marketing and cost.




07 January 2010, 6:10 PM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

K (New user):

Quoting petert:
There was nothing wrong with the standards.


But it's not a standard if it isn't universally standard...

07 January 2010, 11:59 PM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

petert (Advanced Forumologist):

But it's not a standard if it isn't universally standard...

Well that's debatable and I'm not sure that I agree, but anyway, you were the one who used the word standard in your initial post and I was simply quoting you to make my response clear.

08 January 2010, 7:52 AM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

doofus (New user):

Quoting K:
oh well, at least they got it right with Blu-Ray


Got it right? Well, yes, they beat out HD-DVD. But that's about the only victory Blu-Ray has had. They have not (and will likely never) beaten DVD, or digital downloads.

07 January 2010, 10:14 PM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Mastermike (New user):

Quoting doofus:
Got it right? Well, yes, they beat out HD-DVD. But that's about the only victory Blu-Ray has had. They have not (and will likely never) beaten DVD, or digital downloads.

Right now Blu-Ray is still in its infancy but as more and more people make the switch to Blu-Ray it will become the standard and dvd will die. As the size of files get bigger(especially with the popularity of 3D rising) people will have to switch to Blu-Ray.




08 January 2010, 7:07 AM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

apt.pupil (New user):

Quoting doofus:
Got it right? Well, yes, they beat out HD-DVD. But that's about the only victory Blu-Ray has had. They have not (and will likely never) beaten DVD, or digital downloads.

I would do a raincheck on that.
It was the Playstation 2 that was one of the main factors behind DVD sales boosts and their rise to fame.

while Digital downloads is obviously the way of the future, as far as cost and size ratios go, Blu ray has it in the bag for a little while to come.

Also look at the PSP go, which is Sony's venture into a no- disc/cartridge handheld gaming system, and from what i can see- it is going to share the same fate as the virtual boy(essentially an early redndition of 3d named "virtual reality")- which is sadly not going to last. Games retailers in Australia still have a choke hold on the Australian gaming industry, since we do not have unlimited bandwidth broadband internet plans, and games specialty shops, such as Electronics Boutique- are boycotting the handheld because there is no returning revenue for them in the form of further games sales



10 January 2010, 11:15 AM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Phred (New user):

I wonder what will be next... Sony admitting that their batteries are crap?

07 January 2010, 3:38 PM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tin (User):

Gee, who would have thought that a one company "standard" that cost twice as much per MB would be ignored by the public... And in many cases, the media costs put people off buying the products - Digital cameras in particular, where most people want a second or bigger card than is included (especially with Sony cameras coming with cards half the size competitors were shipping in the box).

07 January 2010, 6:14 PM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Tony Ferrelli (New user):

Die, die, die Memory Stick and all of Sony's delusions of self granduer trying shove their proprietary formats down our throats.

10 January 2010, 9:48 AM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Ausman (New user):

Now they can work on bringing out their own version of an SD card... ;-)

12 January 2010, 2:54 AM (3 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

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