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20th April 2005 - SanDisk Corporation, the leading
provider of flash storage cards and NDS, a News Corporation
company and a leading provider of technology solutions
for digital pay TV and digital content protection for
mobile devices, announced a long-range partnership to
provide an end-to-end solution for delivering high value
video/audio content into SanDisk's new generation of
secure flash storage cards for mobile devices. This
will allow mobile network operators, service and content
providers to protect their content property rights and
ensure that consumers gain access to premium content,
such as pay-per-view movies, video clips, digital images,
video games, ringtones, realtones, MP3 music tracks
and more on their mobile phone or portable device. The
announcement was made at the CTIA Wireless 2005 trade
show where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Booth
#3869.
| SanDisk plans to integrate NDS mVideoGuard®
Mobile DRM technology directly into its flash memory
cards that are used in a growing range of mobile
phones. mVideoGuard fully complies with the Open
Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM (Digital Rights Management)
standard and lets service providers and mobile network
operators offer revenue-enhancing business opportunities
such as content subscriptions, single purchase,
pay-per-time, pay-per-level, gifting, free preview,
pay-per-use and metering functions. |
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“NDS is a global leader of mobile content protection
solutions,” said Eli Harari, president and CEO
of SanDisk. “Integrating their technology with
our new generation of cryptographically secure mobile
flash storage cards will provide a complete end-to-end
solution to bring premium entertainment content to consumers
while addressing the security concerns of content providers.”
Dr. Abe Peled, President and CEO of NDS said, “NDS’s
Mobile DRM provides the high security needed by mobile
operators to offer strong content protection and to
offer new revenue generating opportunities. This is
becoming increasingly important as service providers
and mobile network operators seek to leverage their
distribution capabilities in order to build revenue
streams by providing downloadable content to their handset
customers. SanDisk is a leader in the flash card market
and has close relationships with their customers through
retail, handset and mobile network operators.”
Yoram Cedar, Senior Vice President of Engineering and
Emerging Markets at SanDisk said, “Security on
the storage card provides several important advantages.
Consumers gain virtually limitless storage capacity
and handset manufacturers are not burdened with the
cost of providing large amounts of embedded storage
in the phone. Consumers benefit because as content providers
are assured that their content is secure, they will
offer for sale their high-quality content.”
The market for mobile phones with card slots reflects
high growth according to IDC, whose research shows that
87 million such phones were sold in 2004 and forecasts
that 164 million will be sold worldwide in 2005. Industry
sources indicate that more than 200 new models of mobile
handsets to be introduced in 2005 will have a slot for
flash storage cards. These new phones will utilize a
variety of card formats, all of which are offered through
SanDisk’s mobile products line.
SanDisk will sample the new flash cards with NDS mVideoGuard
Mobile DRM technology in Q3 and plans to begin production
in Q4 2005. Pricing will be announced at that time.
SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards
and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data
storage card products, using its patented, high-density
flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered
in Sunnyvale, CA and has operations worldwide, with
more than half its sales outside the U.S.
Mobile
Phone Memory Cards, Memory Sticks and Accessories
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