My first computer in the 1990's came with a 4GB hard disk drive -- very spacious at the time. When my friends saw the capacity, I was instantly the envy of the neighborhood. Nowadays, 4GB is rather pitiful. Modern memory cards, some smaller than a postage stamp, can dwarf my first computer's capacity. That's technology, folks -- everything gets better, and your current tech loses its luster.
SanDisk (a Western Digital company) announces a product that is a major milestone in the technology market -- the world's first 1TB SDXC card. In other words, that is a monstrous 1,000 gigabytes. To put that in perspective, Apple only just stopped putting 16GB storage capacities in the iPhone. This card, which is only a prototype for now, will be a dream for photographers, allowing them to save more photos than ever before. Of course, if the card fails, that is a lot of data to lose...
“Showcasing the most advanced imaging technologies is truly exciting for us. Sixteen years ago we introduced the first SanDisk 64MB SD card and today we are enabling capacities of 1TB. Over the years our goal has remained the same; continue to innovate and set the pace for the imaging industry. The SanDisk 1TB SD card prototype represents another significant achievement as growth of high-resolution content and capacity-intensive applications such as virtual reality, video surveillance and 360 video, are progressing at astounding rates", says Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product management, Content Solutions Business Unit, Western Digital.
Sam Nicholson, CEO, Stargate Studios explains, "just a few short years ago the idea of a 1TB capacity point in an SD card seemed so futuristic -- it’s amazing that we’re now at the point where it’s becoming a reality. With the growing demand for applications like VR, we can certainly use 1TB when we're out shooting continuous high-quality video. High-capacity cards allow us to capture more without interruption, streamlining our workflow, and eliminating the worry that we may miss a moment because we have to stop to swap out cards".
Is this amazing news for the technology world? Absolutely. Fitting so much capacity into a small product is definitely progress. As people transition to 4K video, and beyond, larger capacities will be needed. With that said, 1TB is still overkill for most consumers.
The downside of large capacities, is that some people could be less likely to backup their files. Running out of space is a good reminder to upload photos to the cloud or a local backup. With 1TB, that may be very infrequently. Heck, some consumers may never fill such a card.
Before you start dreaming about buying this, keep in mind, it is only a prototype for now. Even when it does hit the market as a consumer product, it will undoubtedly be very expensive. Ultimately, I don't expect an affordable 1TB SDXC card to be available for many years -- if ever. By the time such a large capacity is priced low enough, we may have moved on to another format entirely, such as the tiny and fast UFS.
Are you excited for the 1TB SDXC card? Tell me in the comments.
