Sandisk and Music

On the 20th of August we wrote about SanDisk:

‘Obviously one thinks about pre loaded MP3 music that could potentially play on any music enabled phone. But why not apply the same logic to other media? You simply slot the tiny card into the little slot on the side of your phone and you have potentially a huge mobile library that is device and network independent. It is reported that 770 million phones were shipped this year with micro SD slots and an additional 900 million are planned for next year. SD an 8 gigabyte micro SD card, and a 16 gigabyte card is coming.’

Today we read the Wall Street Journal reports that the flash memory chip and portable music device manufacturer and the four major producers, Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG, are to introduce in October this year, SlotMusic, music plus on a stick.
This further opens up mobile phones, PCs and some portable MP3 devices. The disc is aimed at retail outlets such as Walmart and Best Buy.

Despite entering into other deals which adopt a different model which makes the music free at consumtion these discs albums will be priced at $15 each. Perhaps the right hand will tell the left hand what it is doing.

Books on Sticks?

We have seen the Barbie on a stick, we have seen the podcast on a stick so why not an ebook on a stick? Why not go one better and have a browser reader embedded on the stick which would give you device independence and also consistency of presentation? So you buy a stick with content and it becomes the ebook you share between devices, friends whatever and what you can and can’t do is dictated by a program that effectively lives of the stick. You could even be allowed to override the book with another.

How many books could you store on a stick? You could even have personalised or branded sticks. They could be sold online or through existing channels?
So before all the technocrats blast my logic the 64 dollar question is whether it would it have an appeal to the consumer?

Our digital friend Bill McCoy at Adobe pointed out an interesting piece from Moconews.com. SanDisk the makers of SD memory cards we all use in our digital cameras, are to offer pre-loaded micro SD cards for mobiles.

Obviously one thinks about pre loaded MP3 music that could potentially play on any music enabled phone. But why not apply the same logic to other media? You simply slot the tiny card into the little slot on the side of your phone and you have potentially a huge mobile library that is device and network independent. It is reported that 770 million phones were shipped this year with micro SD slots and an additional 900 million are planned for next year. SD an 8 gigabyte micro SD card, and a 16 gigabyte card is coming.

As the old saying says, ‘there are many ways to skin a rabbit’. Sorry we didn’t mean the Nabaztag Rabbit.