In a sign that flash memory continues to become more ubiquitous and replace film and other storage mediums, flash memory leader SanDisk
Having taken a look at SanDisk's website, I conclude that the "Shoot and Store" line is definitely geared toward consumers who are not likely to be PC-savvy. As my Foolish neighbor Seth Jayson pointed out, it's a product line geared toward storing photos and then using the card itself instead of a PC hard drive as the storage medium. It's an interesting strategy and one I can certainly understand for folks who don't have a PC.
The other telltale sign of the target audience for these products is how they're marketed. They're categorized not by their size in geek-speak, such as megabytes or gigabytes, but by the number of pictures that the card can hold using a 1-megapixel camera -- the geek-speak returns -- as a baseline. This follows the same logic Apple
As you might expect, these are not memory cards that are going to hold a large amount of data. But if SanDisk can build a market for 32MB memory sticks in a grocery stores at $12.99 a pop, the margins might well be better than what they get for the 128MB SanDisk memory stick I found online a few minutes ago for only $14.39.
Looking at SanDisk in its own right, the shares aren't unreasonably priced at 16.5 times trailing earnings, a rock-solid balance sheet, and especially considering the fact that the company historically does well in its market against its main competitor Lexar
For more SanDisk-related Foolishness, check out:
- SanDisk Stinks, But I'm Not Selling
- SanDisk Smashed
- Is it Little Things atLexar that matter?
Nathan Parmelee has no financial interest in any of the companies mentioned. You can view his profile here. The Motley Fool has an iron-clad disclosure policy.