The Tiny Memory Card Now Holds 16GB

It wasn't all that long ago that the idea of getting a full 1GB of flash memory onto a removable card was a very big deal. And those cards were the size of a credit card.

Then came SD (and MMC) cards -- they were the size of large postage stamps. MiniSD cards came next and they were the size of small postage stamps. But both of these offerings were deemed "too large" to fit inside the portable devices of the future -- and the microSD card was born.

We're talking the size of a small fingernail. Easy to drop (and misplace) and equally easy to fit into increasingly smaller devices like smartphones and high-definition, digital pocket cameras.

I thought 128MB on a microSD was an amazing feat. Ha! Within months it was up to 1GB. Then 2GB. 4GB. And recently 8GB.

SanDisk's 16GB microSDHC card

That was then and this is now. SanDisk(SNDK Quote) has just announced that it is bringing to market a 16GB microSDHC (secure digital high capacity). Sony(SNE Quote) offers its 16GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) (of course, Sony has to be different) mobile memory cards.

Why is this tiny card such a big deal? Because portable devices are capable of handling so many more tasks than just a few years ago or even a few months ago. Take for instance music storage, video playback and high-definition videos, a slew of interactive games, new cell-phone applications (you know: applets) and even countrywide GPS maps.

Plus, and I'm guessing now, that as smartphones begin taking the place of laptops in a number of situations that we will begin to see more super-users storing word processing documents, spreadsheets and even digital presentations on their smartphones. 8GB and smaller capacity cards just won't do in 2009 and beyond.