Sandisk 32 GB micro SDHC cards announced as being available!

Before you get too excited though, the MSRP is $200!!! When they get down to around $60 I might buy one.

I wonder if the 16 GB micro SDHC cards will drop in price soon. I wonder when they will be under $25. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/SanDisk-First-to-Ship-32-bw-3827043806.html?x=0&.v=1

was this the big thing announced??? is so this is disaapointing.

It might be, or perhaps we might see another announcement tomorrow. A 32 GB full sized SDHC card is only around $75, so if I really wanted to use a 32 GB card in player now, I would buy a player that takes a full sized SDHC card. Since I don’t really need to use a 32 GB card, I will wait.

Can a Fuze support a 32GB mSDHC right off the bat? I know the tech should support it, but it isn’t always so with firmware.

The Fuze can support a 32 GB micro SDHC card, although the player has an 8,000 song limit. If your songs average over 4 minutes each, and you use a bitrate of at least 192 kbps, and also keep your file names and tags names rather short, and don’t use excessive nesting of folders then you should be fine. With long filenames, long tag names, long folder names, or excessive nesting, some people couldn’t even have more than around 6,000 songs recognized by the player, as the database file ran out of space.

Some people have connected a full sized SDHC card to the Fuze using an adapter, and it worked fine.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.27001~r.21074969

It’ll be fine - the database limit isn’t my problem - I’ve got about 3500 songs on mine and my 8GB Fuze + 16GB uSDHC are always out of space. ;(

@jk98 wrote:

The Fuze can support a 32 GB micro SDHC card, although the player has an 8,000 song limit. If your songs average over 4 minutes each, and you use a bitrate of at least 192 kbps, and also keep your file names and tags names rather short, and don’t use excessive nesting of folders then you should be fine. With long filenames, long tag names, long folder names, or excessive nesting, some people couldn’t even have more than around 6,000 songs recognized by the player, as the database file ran out of space.

JK, do you have any sense about whether Sandisk can and/or will update firmware to expand this limit?

My CD collection occupies about 35GB at the moment, so I’ve been waiting for these cards and whether they’re compatible with my Fuze.  So far, so good, but wasn’t aware of the 8k song limit - I’m probably brushing up against that.  With a little editing I can probably drop below the limit, but I’m interested to see if any plans are afoot to expand the limit.

The Fuze is just about perfect for me, since all I want in a DMP is music and album covers; no interest in video at all and very minimal interest in a few family photos.  The size and weight of the Fuze were what I was looking for, but not the (built-in) capacity.  Currently using a 16GB uSDHC expansion card.

"

JK, do you have any sense about whether Sandisk can and/or will update firmware to expand this limit?"

They may not be able to expand the limit any more, since the Fuze has a very limited amout of physical ram, and I think the player needs to have the full database in ram to be reasonably responsive.

The 32 GB micro SDHC card at $200 is imo not worth it. For $150 or less , one can buy an extra 8 GB Fuze(or Clip+) and two 16 GB micro SDHC cards.

Message Edited by JK98 on 03-23-2010 05:48 PM

JK98 wrote: 

 

The 32 GB micro SDHC card at $200 is imo not worth it. For $150 or less , one can buy an extra 8 GB Fuze(or Clip+) and two 16 GB micro SDHC cards.

I agree it’s not worth $200 for most people, maybe for critical apps.  Once it drops below $150 and preferably close to $100 at actual pricing I’ll grab one; there’s no way I’m going to carry or manage more than one DMP.

And eventually, there’ll be devices with more capacity than the Fuze, so I can move the card to those - I just hope I’m not forced to buy a big one all glopped up with WiFi, video screen and all that; I just want to tote my CD collection and the Fuze is the perfect form factor for my needs.

The database limitations are less critical if you have high bitrate media, like video or FLAC for example, where storage space is more important than the overall number of files.  The type of music is also a factor.  Classical music, for example, doesn’t like in the pop world of four-minute tracks.

I’m pleased that the technical challenges have been met in getting the wee beasties into production.  As small as a microSD card is, the actual memory device is far smaller.  Incredible!

Being the first on the block with the latest and greatest will always have its requisite price of admission, of course.  The price of these devices will drop over time, that’s the way it goes.  Conversely, putting them on the market, as the first of their kind, at a tremendous discount makes as much sense as throwing in a Porsche with the purchase a new set of tires.

Bob  :stuck_out_tongue:

neutron_bob wrote: .  Conversely, putting them on the market, as the first of their kind, at a tremendous discount makes as much sense as throwing in a Porsche with the purchase a new set of tires…

 

Bob  :stuck_out_tongue:

Considering how expensive some high-performance tires are, they could at least throw in a Toyota Camry.  :wink:

From http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/car/2006-bugatti-veyron-16.4

“Michelin spent millions of dollars developing tires that were strong and heat-resistant enough to go 260 mph yet compliant enough for everyday driving. A set of tires alone costs $17,000; the special wheels with Michelin’s run-flat PAX system are an additional $43,000.” 

“Please note that, due to overwhealming demand for the 32GB microSDHC card, this product is temporarily out of stock and your order will be placed in backorder status.”

Figures! Anyway, if there’s something that’s a bit iffy about this μSDHC card, it is that for this price, the speed class - 2 - isn’t much.

Message Edited by Raimu on 03-26-2010 04:01 AM

Raimu wrote:

“Please note that, due to overwhealming demand for the 32GB microSDHC card, this product is temporarily out of stock and your order will be placed in backorder status.”

 

Figures! Anyway, if there’s something that’s a bit iffy about this μSDHC card, it is that for this price, the speed class - 2 - isn’t much.

Message Edited by Raimu on 03-26-2010 04:01 AM

Sorta shoots the heck outta JK98's theory that there won’t be any consumer interest unitl the price comes down to half of what the 16 GB card started out at, doesn’t it? :stuck_out_tongue:

"Sorta shoots the heck outta JK98’s theory that there won’t be any consumer interest unitl the price comes down to half of what the 16 GB card started out at, doesn’t it? "

Its all relative. Demand could still be  low, but supply much lower than demand. Perhaps initially the yields on this are low, so the $200 price is justified. If the yields are low, then expect them to greatly improve over time as the process is perfected. Hopefully the price will drop significantly soon. I guess the selling price isn’t really based on the manufacturing cost, but what the market will bear, when competing products are available, and what price will maximize their profit.

JK98 wrote:

"Sorta shoots the heck outta JK98’s theory that there won’t be any consumer interest until the price comes down to half of what the 16 GB card started out at, doesn’t it? "

 

Its all relative. Demand could still be  low, but supply much lower than demand. Perhaps initially the yields on this are low, so the $200 price is justified. If the yields are low, then expect them to greatly improve over time as the process is perfected.

So, let me get this right. You’re suggesting that a major player . . . no, let me re-phrase that . . . _ THE major player & leader in the flash memory industry in the entire world _ just launched a brand-new, previously unseen (by anybody) 32GB micro SDHC card and didn’t anticipate much of a response so they didn’t gear up production and inventory levels because they thought it would only generate a lack-luster and weak sales demand?

Nawww, it couldn’t be that despite what you think, there really is a high demand for this product and there really are people ready, willing & able to pay the intial opening price, could it?

Amazing . . . simply amazing.

Message Edited by Tapeworm on 03-26-2010 11:59 AM

There is a high demand for it, but at much lower prices. If yield are low now, then production rates are probably also low, since they would want to produce as much as possible of it at higher yields. Once yields are inreased to a high rate, then full speed production can begin. What are the yields now? I don’t know.