Sony's Memory Stick Pro Duo pushing 8GB in 2006

No real surprise, but it looks like Sony will be releasing their 4 and 8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo cards in 2006. So you'd better start saving up now if you really want to make your new Sony Ericsson W810i into a $1500 8GB MP3 playin' musicphone.

[Jen @ Jan 6th 2006 3:57PM]

But will the PSP be able to read from an 8GB?

[sinamachai @ Jan 6th 2006 3:58PM]

This almost makes my psp worth keeping

hope that $1500 ain't fo' reelz! Ya heard

[Darren Tilley @ Jan 6th 2006 4:02PM]

Hopefully sony will release a firmware for the PSP, as I've heard that it can only currently access 4GB. I'm sure it's just a firmware limitation, but it would be mildly annoying if the 8GB isn't compatible.

[Mike @ Jan 6th 2006 4:05PM]

If you buy the 8GB stick (or 4) for the purposes of playing music, it isn't worth it.

Just get an iPod or equivalent DAP that would play upwards of 10GB... for around $300. You're paying 5x more if you get a PSP and the 8GB stick...



Anyone doing that must be insane.

And Sony must be insane for charging such outrageous prices as those.

[Red @ Jan 6th 2006 4:13PM]

The current firmware 2.6 for the PSP only supports up to 4-gb of storage. So more memory will be dependant on a massive firmware upgrade. As for the price, they could never sell an 8 gig for that price in the American market. They only speculate the rediculous price based on taking a 1-gig and multiplying it by 8. That doesn't work, let's say a 100gb. hard drive for a PC is $100.00, that does not make a 400gb $400.00. Plus as memory sticks get more mass produced by other companies like Sandisk, the supply will go up, and the demand will go down, forcing the price to be lower...

[D L Ball @ Jan 6th 2006 4:15PM]

If that's the price Sony really will not be selling too many of those. The price for the 2Gig is too much. Who's buying these things at those prices? I think if Sony wants to push this stuff they have to rethink there prices...Really!

[TZK @ Jan 6th 2006 4:19PM]

Theoretically (I love that word) this sony tech can go to 32GB. How about that new HDD camcorder with one of these? Talk about small! :)

[D L Ball @ Jan 6th 2006 4:26PM]

When the price of the memory sticks cost more than the PSP what is the use. I'm big fan of Sony but they have lost it. Come on they got to do better than this, how do they expect to reach their loyal PSP fans?

[Red @ Jan 6th 2006 4:30PM]

When the 1gb came out, it was $179.99, recently Best Buy had it on sale for $79.99, that's a huge price drop in just a few months.

[Daniel D @ Jan 6th 2006 4:35PM]

I hate to break it you you but �1500 is an accurate price for this. Over here in the UK they were selling 4gb for �800 ($1400ish) so they will rip people of similarly with these aswell. Its insane I know but at least with these coming out 1gb and 2gb mem sticks will become more affordable



PSP: Yes this is true it can only read 4gb at present

[Frankenstein Black @ Jan 6th 2006 4:55PM]

Does this mean that I can buy a PS3 (rumored to be coming in at around $499) for less than this 8GB memory stick? Didn�t the Sony CEO just say that they are breaking down barriers across internal business units allowing for one hand to know what the other is doing?

I refuse to believe that it will hit at anything near that price. It is almost better to not bring a product like this to market if you can�t justify or make the cost �sensible�. At 1.5k I could potentially by THREE PS3, from the same company no less! TRUST ME. THAT PRICE AINT REAL!!

[GOD @ Jan 6th 2006 4:56PM]

Red: Only Sandisk and Sony can produce memory sticks (as I understand it) because it's their joint format. And the 1GB memory sticks has been out for over a year (that is a lot more then a few months).



I'm really not sure would would buy this. Maybe professional photographers? The price just seems way too high.

[John Molina @ Jan 6th 2006 5:01PM]

Prices are speculative and these products are obviously non-consumer as of yet. Dickweeds.

[no3rdw @ Jan 6th 2006 5:05PM]

Early last year, 2gb memory stick pro duo's were $400. Now they are $140.



Wait a year after SanDisk releases their version of the 8gb and 4gb sticks, and then buy them. Pure guessing here, but I'd say end of 2006... maaybe $300 for the 8gb. Less than $200 for the 4gb.

[ChillyWilly @ Jan 6th 2006 5:09PM]

Price wise, you know these things are going to be way out of range for most people at first. But as one comment already mentioned, waiting will see lower prices.



I wouldn't mind 4gb in my PSP. I'd load up more videos than I do now.

[Zo @ Jan 6th 2006 5:34PM]

Ok, let us say $249 for the PSP + $300 for the 8gb stick...that equals $550 for the two.



That does not include any games movies etc. Tell me again why its a good idea to purchase a PSP?



Wouldn't a video IPod and DS give you more bang for the buck?

[retro @ Jan 6th 2006 5:51PM]

Remember, these aren't the High-Speed Memory Stick Duo Pros that retail at an MSRP of around $1199.99 Canadian. That's what the 4gb Memory Stick Pro (Not duo) costs, and I'm betting a 4gb non High-Speed (which is 80mbps, regular is at 15mbps) will retial for around $200, the 8gb going anywhere from $300 to $400. I'll definitely be picking one of these up if Sony randomly decides the price is too high and drops it to $250 for an 8gb. :)

[Bart @ Jan 6th 2006 6:31PM]

damn just when i was looking for a way to replace my ipod with a w900i :D

stoopid prices :P

[Billy @ Jan 6th 2006 6:43PM]

Haha, a memory stick bigger than my hard drive! Thats hilarious! (Yes, I sadly have a 6 gb hard drive)

[Rick @ Jan 6th 2006 9:26PM]

Hey dumbasses, it says that the phone and memory stick will be about $1500. Not the memory stick its self. Yes and the phone costs nearly $1k on its own, so the stick will be about $500-$700, Which is still outrageous to me.

[Tom @ Jan 6th 2006 9:38PM]

@ #13



"Only Sandisk and Sony can produce memory sticks"



You are wrong.



http://www.lexar.com/digfilm/memory_stick.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BWI29I/qid=1136601428/sr=8-20/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i20_xgl23/104-8251812-0043114?n=507846&s=electronics&v=glance

[alvaro @ Jan 8th 2006 3:06PM]

a phone for 1k? thats the stuidest thing ive heard... 1500 is just an exagerration, they have no idea how much it will cost... sony has not announced the price

[Jonathan Fung @ Jan 9th 2006 3:53AM]

#17



The PSP is still great, and would be amazing with an 8 gig in it. At a pricepoint of you say 550, its not bad at all. Why? Well of course this is illegal, but if you go to Hong Kong, and snoop around in the electronics district, you can pick up DVDs with PSP games and movies burned on them. Copy them onto your memory stick, and they play.



At the place I visited, they were selling like 12 DVD disks filled with PSP stuff at only 300 HKD...under 50 USD. So that equates to almost every PSP game out. And heck, they even downgrade for you for free there. Ah yes, Hong Kong is great. Too bad I wasn't brave enough to try their downgrader.



But 8 gigs...thats wonderful news, because that means that the gig and 2 gig prices will continue to go down.



Jon

[Shoyrux @ Jan 11th 2006 9:56PM]

As much as this would be worth it.. I'm not going to buy an 8GB and update firmware, I'd rather buy 2 4gb or 4 2 GB when they drop dramatically in price. Updating Firmware = Loss of all Homebrew and other crap like downloading games and emulators. So what would the point be in using the Memory Stick without the free games? Yea sure you can fit on about 3 Movies and still have space for maybe 500+ Songs (Depending on their sizes) but it loses the point of having it so the 8Gig Memory stick isnt worth the waste if you got a PSP.

[Jonno @ Jan 12th 2006 12:12PM]

You know when the 4GB and 8GB sticks come out the 1GB and 2GB will go down in price ALOT because its ridiculous to buy a sony 8GB card for �460



a sony 1GB stick now on avarage is �60 ish

I estimate the price of a 1GB stick will be after 8GB release... on avarage... �30



so then the 8GB will be... �250 ish



thats alot, but then thats 16 full length movies about 8000 MP3's... i cant be assed to work out the game saves...



so thats good....



and remember... you have in a psp a portable movie player, portable MP3 player, Portable gaming station and more



so even though you have the psp, the 8gb will allow you to have most your mp3's and video collection on there and still have room for gaming and saves

[spyder @ Jan 17th 2006 12:01PM]

what the hell �250 for a 8gb memory stick that is a rip off who would buy it

[Syed K. Jawwad @ Jan 18th 2006 2:32PM]

I seriously doubt these prices...the marketers for Sony aren't idiots....atleast I hope not...

[gonzo @ Jan 20th 2006 7:29AM]

Most people here are looking at this from the perspective of a PSP owner - I wasn't that impressed with it. But I am just about to get a SE k750i on a free upgrade, and news that higher capacity memory sticks will be available is awesome.

A 2gb stick will hold a tons of games, enough music to keep me entertained when commuting and store hi-res photos. Larger capacity sticks will cause a significant price crash! Happy days!

[Badman @ Jan 30th 2006 3:59PM]

Will the 8gig stick work in a k750i

[Aaron Gray @ Nov 20th 2007 4:47PM]

There is an adapter for your PSP that will allow you to use SD-Cards. You can get 16GB SD cards for the price of an 8GB memory stick. Also the adapter lets you use "2" SD cards at once!

Now, will the PS2 recognize stuff that big, I have no idea!