The new product means greater convenience and cost savings for consumers who can just plug the SD card into any SD card slot such as is used in most digital cameras, and then plug it into any USB port without needing an SD card reader to transfer data, images, audio or video between computers, digital cameras and other electronic devices.

Michael Morganstern, a SanDisk product marketing manager, said, "We developed a new mechanical design which allows us to fully contain a high-speed 2.0 USB flash drive within the small SD form factor. The innovative mechanical design eliminates the need for a removable cap, which can be lost, and results in a dual functionality card that is fully SD compliant. The device also features an LED that blinks when data transfer is taking place to indicate that the card is being used as a USB flash drive."

"SD memory card and USB flash drive shipments together will total 235 million units by 2008, with SD the dominant full-size card form factor," said Allen Leibovitch, Program Manager, Semiconductors, for IDC, a leading market research firm.

The first products to be released by SanDisk with this technology are scheduled to be introduced in Q1, 2005. SanDisk will provide further product details at the annual Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show, 20 February in Orlando, Fla. At that time, SanDisk is expected to introduce capacities as high as one gigabyte.