Sansa Nation

Today, the SanDisk corporation has announced that their founder, chairman, and CEO Dr. Eli Harari will be receiving the Global Semiconductor Alliance’s Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award. He will be receiving the award at the GSA Awards Dinner Celebration tonight at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. The prestigious award recognizes individuals whose contributions to the semiconductor industry exemplify a transformative vision and global leadership. Dr. Harari founded SanDisk back in 1988, and since then has transformed the company into the world’s largest supplier of flash memory cards. Through Harari’s leadership, SanDisk invented flash mass storage cards and helped pioneer USB flash drives. In addition, SanDisk developed CompactFlash, SD and microSD, and co-developed Memory Stick PRO and Memory Stick PRO Duo card formats. SanDisk also invented Multi-Level Cell technology, which  greatly increasing the capacity of NAND flash memory. Congratulations to Dr. Eli Harari for his well deserved award.

- Geoff

[Source: MarketWatch]

Popularity: 38% [?]

SanDisk has just introduced their new Cruzer Enterprise USB flash drive that SanDisk claims is “the first secure USB flash drive to fully support Apple Mac OS X computers”. With the Cruzer Enterprise, SanDisk implemented “a hardware-based 256-bit AES USB encryption solution that puts mandatory access control on all files as protection against theft or loss of the drive”. With the new implementation, the Cruzer Enterprise USB flash drive will allow users to log in/shut down access to the encrypted storage area, change/manage passwords, edit contact information (among other preferences), launch online support and view current firmware and drive information. The Cruzer Enterprise comes in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB storage sizes and will run you anywhere from $60 to $300. It is fully compatible with bot Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard), as well as work with the Microsoft Windows platform.

- Geoff

[Source: Engadget]

Popularity: 16% [?]

SanDisk shares rose 25% today due to speculation that Toshiba Corp. will be buying out SanDisk.  SanDisk shares ended the day at $9.02. Prior to today, there were already rumors circulating around that Toshiba, which is Japan’s largest chip maker. Those initial rumors slowly diminished, but now they have resurfaced. Over a month ago, Sandisk stocks fell when Samsung decided to forego their bid to buy SanDisk. Many people questioned the stability of the SanDisk company due to the declining economy and the market glut in NAND Flash memory products. Although the speculation has raise the share of SanDisk, many analysts still believe that Toshiba does not have the financial backing to make such a bid for SanDisk. SanDisk Corp. has yet to give a comment on the situation.

- Geoff

[Source: MarketWatch]

Popularity: 9% [?]

That 8GB SanDisk MicroSD card not doing it for you? Well don’t worry because SanDisk has a 128GB MicroSD card on the way, that that’s right, 128GB! SanDisk has been marketing their MicroSD cards for the cell phone and MP3 market which accounted for about $1.4 billion in revenue for SanDisk in 2007 alone. Many cell phones have expansion slots for MicroSD cards and many more are expected to include this feature in the future. 128GB is about how most modern notebook computers come with, but SanDisk hopes to bring that storage capacity to cell phones.

-Ray

[Source: physorg]

Popularity: 10% [?]

For all who were kept in the dark, SanDisk was currently in a legal battle with Alcatel-Lucent, one of the world’s leaders in telecommunications. SanDisk was suing Alcatel-Lucent over one of their patents, and Alcatel-Lucent countered with claims asking SanDisk for royalties over their MP3 players. The case was put on hold because Alcatel-Lucent is currently fighting a similar case with Microsoft. Today, both Alcatel-Lucent and SanDisk filed a joint request to drop the lawsuit at the San Jose Federal Court. Milpitas-based SanDisk has stated that their media players, such as the Connect, Clip, View, Fuze, SlotMusic, etc. don’t use the process that is covered by the Alcatel-Lucent patent. Alcatel-Lucent agreed “not to sue or otherwise seek to hold SanDisk liable” for infringement of the patent.

- Geoff

[Source: MercuryNews]

Popularity: 8% [?]

SanDisk released an upgraded version of their Sansa Clip MP3 player, they bumped the Sansa Clip to 8GB and increased battery life to 15 hours. The new and improved Sansa Clip will go for $99. The Sansa Clip supports MP3, WMA, WAV as well as Audible audio book files. It also features an FM radio and well as a voice recorder and support for music download programs like Napster and Rhapsody. Check out the new Sansa Clip online or at your local retailer.

-Ray

[Source: cnet]

Popularity: 8% [?]